City Eyes
by Takeru Mayakami
Summary: The story is what happens when Luke (Lelouche), Chronan (Conan), and Wright (Light) interact with one another without involving giant robots. The setting is a modern Heika City where the Debritton Conglomerate's base is. Their first antagonist is the terrorist: Akamatsu (Akumetsu). Prepare for many familiar character cameos from favorite Anime.
1. Luke's Introduction

"We're here live at the fourth annual Emperor's Ball where the business mogul, Charles Debriten, will be giving a speech to prominent heads in industry and government. They have gathered for an extravagant night of feasting and entertainment, but this is not all about fun. All proceeds made by the dinner will go the Sidarth and Edna Foundation which run orphanages all across the world. A live performance given by idol Yoko Inoko will start off this evening along with..."

_Just like father to go pull all the stops to please the public._ Luke LaRouge thought while watching the red carpet procession from his dorm monitor. What a hypocrite leaving Yunaly and I to fend for ourselves all this time just because our mother came from a different class than him. Mother also had some familial ties with prominent gang leaders, which is probably why father even considered her as a potential wife. He then took over the territories of the gangs to set up his enterprise while subjugating all those in his way. By that time, the gangs had reformed and weren't very violent. When they wanted to set up businesses in the territories they had owned, father's men would run them out of shop. What were left of the gangs had moved to other areas but did not fare well there.

Even though we weren't from his current wife, our father gave us the option of living with them under the pretense of being adopted. I wouldn't live with him for any reason especially since it was probably his fault mother had died. The mistress, his current wife, looked down on mother and the day that she died her guards were conspicuously away. Yunaly was found clutching mother and never opened her eyes or walked from then. Most likely due to the guilt, father gives us monthly living allowance and pays for our schooling, where we have taken up an alias for our last name.

_I'll make a world that's free for Yunaly._

It will be a daunting task since his conglomerate works across the globe and at every level of the economy. But using the power that runs in my father's bloodline, the Emperor's Eye that gives me the power to command a person to follow my orders once, I'll take my father down. I don't care too much for the gangs that have family ties to me, but I'll use them to get back at father.

"Breaking news! A masked intruder has taken President Makito Chinra hostage!" The camera pans to the stage. A man wearing a devilish, yet stylistic red and black helmet stands with Chinra carried over his shoulder is who yelling for help. Chinra is quickly silenced with a gun shot to the leg.

"...Our country is in a massive deficit: nearly 200 trillion yen, and it's because of politicians being bought out by people like Chairman Debriten and President Chinra here. Chinra is known to have been a quite outspoken congressman in his day for the"Bridge to Nothing." Hundreds of thousands of yen were spend on it where it lead to a pretty much unpopulated island easily reachable by ferry when needed. But who benefited from it in the end, the one oil refinery that realized that there was a larger than expected oil field in that very lake. That company was a branch of the Chinra Electic Company."

_This guy..._

"We are Akamatsu, destroyers of the evils in our society. How do we justify this you ask? We pay the ultimate price: our lives." The mask of Akamatsu explodes and the screen goes fuzzy.


	2. Inspector Katagi Arrives at Crime Scene

"Call the ambulance!" someone yelled in the hall.

Screams from the women could be heard in the background...

A few minutes pass and the crowd is safely evacuated outside the building.

_What a horrible mess. _

Inspector Watson Katagi thought this as he entered through the police tape. The bodies of President Chinra and the decapitated masked man are laying a few meters apart. The gore was very vivid and sent up a feeling of nausea in Inspector Katagi. He had never gotten over this aspect of the work since he started. With a handkerchief covering his nose and mouth he asked the medics on the status of President Chinra.

"It's no good, sir. President Chinra suffered massive blunt head trauma due to the explosion."

"And what about the terrorist?" Katagi inquired.

"Nothing on him yet, sir."

_Once we get a match on the DNA we'll have a better idea of who was behind this. What results will the DNA testing bring? _

"Move it, people!"

A squad of four SWAT members entered the tape and walked over to the terrorist's body. Katagi noticed a man in a gray suit walk in behind them along with the manager of the hotel. Mr. gray-suit walked over to the body and surveyed it momentarily and went back to the manager.

"Can we get the surveillance tapes of all of the hotel areas from every entrance to every exit," he asked the hotel manager.

"Please, right this way."

One of the SWAT members came up to Mr. Gray-suit, "Orders, sir!"

Clutching his temples, "Take the body to headquarters for analysis. Detain as many guests and workers as possible for interrogation." To someone else on blue-tooth, "Get the satellite feed on the surrounding area for the last twenty-four hours."

Katagi knew what jurisdictions he was in charge of and never saw this guy before. He walked toward the gray-suit...


	3. Wright's Introduction

_How ridiculous. Giving up your life just to take down one crooked politician. I've got no problem with trying to rid the world of corruption, but not at that cost. True enough though: this world is rotting..._

Wright Yasogami thought as he entered the double doors to the hall where the assassination had occurred. The odor didn't phase me much; I was accustomed to worse sights. I was being accompanied with some Self Defense Force units after getting the order from headquarters since my usual partners weren't in the area.

I walked toward the terrorist's body and looked it over. Then I went back to the manager who had stayed by the door and asked him to see the surveillance tapes of the hotel.

"Please, right this way."

My department was a special anti-terrorist subunit. I had worked my way in after getting a recommendation and graduating with honors with a degrees in criminal law and psychology from Waseda University. The recommendation was by my late father and detective's supervisor for insights into the cases they were working.

I was placed in the same division as father. Having an absolute sense of justice, I came to detesting the fact I could do little in my position while my co-workers were content with taking the smaller cases. Even in the cases that we did get into, many of the criminals got away due to some loophole in the law structure. People on the streets were scared of walking alone at night because these criminals were let loose with loose terms. Frustrated to a point of madness, I looked for a way out.

I got married at age twenty-two.

She was a reporter for a foreign news station that I came to know first through college and then through run-ins with my division. Carrie Tacoma was a foreign student from the U.S. who had a stern outlook on corporate crime from what I recall from the law classes I took with her. Even as a reporter she would always look for leads for corruption and try to expose it. She was also pretty good looking.

We were a good match, but the marriage didn't seem to quell my appetite for justice.

_I need to change this rotting world._

I had abstained from alcohol until that point. At that point, I decided to get heavily intoxicated at some little unknown pub I had come know. A half a dozen shots later, I was thrown onto the street for something I couldn't remember. That was when Rook came into the picture.

Rook was an unusual person. At our first meeting, he wore some dark punk outfit topped with fur collar. He came up to me eating an apple, "so, eh, you want to change the world, eh?"


	4. Wright's Decision

I sat on the curb looking at Rook. In my inebriated state, Rook took on a surreal quality as though some spiritual energy emanated from him.

CRUNCH

"Apples are delicious, eh. What do you think, Wright?"

_First this guy talks about changing the world, and now he's talking apples?_

"Change the world? Hah, don't make me laugh. I'm a detective...even then, I can't put a few low level crooks off the streets."

"Hey, hey, buck up. Besides, I know what your problem is already. You spilled it all out back there," he motioned toward the pub. "So don't bore me."

_Silence_

"All I'm saying is that I'm giving you a choice to do something about it. I think you've got the right idea from what I heard...We should get rid of all the "filth" in the world. Right?"

Rook sat next to Wright, "You see here: I'm immortal."

"But it comes at a price. I make a blood pact with someone, and they're able to share my inherited ability. I call it Death's Eye. If I know the person's full name and look at an unobstructed view of their face, I can control how they die."

I listened calmly.

"I just need to have a killing intent when I repeat their full name in my head four times and then say how they'd die out loud. I just can't make them kill someone else. If they tried to kill someone else, then they'd regain conciousness and be unsucceptable to manipulation again."

"If you want the power, all you have to do is pay my price through the blood pact. I haven't needed to make the pact in a while now but I need a source of life energy if I want to go on living another decade. You'd be giving me part of your life energy to use the eye. If you're lucky, you can live out half of the life you'd have lived otherwise. That's the longest someone's lasted...well that's if you take into account the life spans of their relatives and friends."

I thought about it for a moment and said, "that is only if I use the power after we make that pact."

"Hehhhehe. No need to be so serious. You're correct though. But don't worry, you'd survive a hundred uses without loosing a week, probably."

"What happened to the others?" I asked.

"I'm not one to divulge secrets, but let's say that none of them ever attained happiness using the power."


	5. First Details of Akamatsu

That was two years ago. Needless to say I've gotten the Death's eye. I used it thousands of times already, sending society's scum to death. Serial killers, rapists, mob bosses, and drug lords have met their demise at my hand. To get to the mob bosses and drug lords, I manipulated the deaths of their minions to draw out information on the hidden crime rings.

My "skills" allowed me to move into the international stage just recently as part of the Japanese Anti-terrorist Criminal Liaison or JACL. Even though I have to deal with terrorists, I now have access to vital information I need to cleanse this world of scum in general.

_But I've never heard of this group from any of my sources. _

He couldn't have gotten in without help. Debritten is especially careful of his surroundings. I've heard this from Carrie countless times. She hasn't been able to dig up any dirt against Debritten.

Not that I care about what Debritten does. I sympathize a little with Akamatsu, so I'm pretty excited for this challenge. There's too much that's suspicious about them. There may be someone in that group that I could work with.

"Orders, sir!" One of the SDF units reported to me.

I was brought to the present. I told him the standard protocol. Then I told my JACAL cohort over headset to check the satellite feeds.

This particular cohort always worked from his post at headquarters, but he was rarely put in the front lines since he was the teenage son of the department head. I never met him in person, but he is a particularly skilled programmer and hacker. I had done a little hacking in the course of my work. So I knew he was very useful.

A police inspector walked up to me from where Chinra's body was, "Hello. I am the inspector in charge of this case, Watson Katagi. Who are you with?"

"JSDF anti-terrorism unit, Wright Yasogami."

I showed him my badge, "Rest assured we'll take over from here."

"Ah, I see," Katagi looked relieved. "I'll leave the rest to you. Good luck"

The SDF unit from before came close to me and told me something in a hushed voice, "Sir, information from HQ. Initial analysis of the terrorist's DNA showed that the terrorist was reported dead three years ago. They even have the body's autopsy records."

"Acknowledged. Make sure you keep this information top secret."

Katagi was a few feet away looking around the area. He then gathered his men to leave. Did he hear what the SDF unit had said? He and his men didn't show signs of excitement.

_I knew this case would be interesting._


	6. Chronan's Introduction

"Sources say that President Chinra has passed away in last night's terrorist attack. No word from the police if this was just a unique attempt on Chinra's life, or if this will be part of a chain of attacks. Details on Akamatsu remain scarce, however. It seems public opinion seems divided on the issue..."

_Murder is murder. No one has the right to take the life of another. _Edward Chronon thought this as he passed an electronic shop on his way home after school. I had separated from my second grade classmates by this time and now accompanied the two high school girls, Renae and Sophia, towards the detective agency run by Renae's father. There, I get to listen in on the cases from police that visit for advice. I also help out to solve the cases. I do this since I need to find out information on a crime syndicate that targeted me for trying to expose them once. Truth is I'm already sixteen years old and well regarded as an aspiring detective.

My name is actually Sean Shirobara and in the third year of high school. No one except for my family and two others know this. I look like I'm in grade school because the crime syndicate drugged me once with the intention of killing me, but I ended up degenerating into my childhood form instead of dying. The syndicate doesn't know that I survived. Otherwise, they would have tried to silence me again. Since then, I've taken up the persona of Edward Chronon in order to get back at the syndicate.

For the time being, I live with Renae and her father, Matsuhide Kaguro. Our families have been family friends since our parents were in high school. They don't know about my true identity though. They took me in on the pretense that I was a relative of the high school me and that my parents were overseas for an extended period of time. My real parents actually do travel a lot, so they send "Edward's" living expenses via mail. My house isn't used much so we rented it out to a scientist that was good friends with us; he knows about my situation and supplies me with some gadgets I use in doing detective work.

Up to now, I haven't made much progress into finding out information on the syndicate other than that they like to wear formal dark clothes, and that they are extremely careful in their methods. I doubt the recent terrorism is the syndicate's doing, since they like to keep a low profile. Even if there's no connection, I'm still hoping that there'll be information about this new terrorist back at the detective agency. This group looks dangerous.

We were still far from the agency while Renae and Sophia chatted about their classes.

_I miss being being in high school with Renae and the others._

Renae bumped into someone, "Oh, I'm sorry. Please excuse me."

The person she bumped into looked rich and was stylish in his school uniform, "I'd easily forgive someone as pretty as yourself... Hmm, actually I think you'd be perfect."

Renae looked flustered, "What do you mean?"

"Just wait here a second," he replied. Then he called someone on his cellphone, "Can you come pick me up?" He said some things in a hushed voice.

A short time later, a Bentley arrived where we stood. The rear door opened and a burly man in a suit came out. He took Renae's hand and dragged her into the car while the rich student quickly got in the front seat. I saw Renae struggling to punch the man, but he over-powered her. The doors closed before Sophia and me could get to them, and the car drove away.


	7. Renae's Kidnapping

"Renae!" Sophia and I shouted in sync.

"Don't worry Eddy. I know which school that uniform is from. We can track the kidnapper from there," Sophia told me with her hand on my head. I must have looked worried. I suppose even she could be quite level headed at times.

"Thanks, Sophia."

"Father said our school had a better domestic business program than theirs, but I could have gotten in easily," She boasted with a slight chuckle. Though level headed, Sophia was a bit arrogant all the same.

"Anyways, we shouldn't take any chances. Let's take your family's car and follow them quickly, okay!"

"Right, right. I'll call my father's driver so we can head to their campus as quickly as possible," she agreed.

A sleek Mercedes sedan arrived to pick us up within a few minutes. I didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but if that flirtatious student did anything to Renae, I wouldn't forgive him.

He seemed well to do, but what puzzles me is what he said:

"I think you'd be perfect."

What did he mean by that? Could this have something to do with the syndicate? Have they found out about me? These kind of thoughts raced through my head as we pulled up to the school gates of the International Studies Academy.

"This school is known for their emphasis on letting students run the school to get the most practical experience out of school. If anyone would know how to find Renae, it's their student body government," Sophia informed me as we ran toward the entrance of the administrative building.

We walked into their administrative building to see quite a bit of students students huddled in groups. A few groups had presentations running complete with charts and diagrams being shown by projector.

_This place looks impressive._

I snapped back to reality. It's not the time for admiration.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where can we find the president? Its urgent that we see them," I asked a bookish looking girl close to us.

"Uhm, they would be in the executive's lounge up the stairs. I can take you there if you want," she replied.

"Thanks," I replied as we walked toward the stairs. The bookish looking girl led us toward this wide stair well, but she ended up tripping on the first step and her glasses fell off. "Ouch!"

I picked them up for her and realized that both the lenses were missing. She took the frame and put them back on with the the lenses still missing. She continued up the grand stairwell.


	8. The Nature of The Kidnappers

"Hey, your lenses fell out. Don't you need them?" Sophia asked.

"They're fake. Anyhow, you guys seem like you're in a hurry, and I don't need them since I have perfect vision."

"Why do have them then?" I probed. Maybe they held some deep significance to her.

"Isn't it obvious," she looked at us. "Being in student council means looking smart means wearing glasses and having braided hair."

Sophia and I looked at each other. She whispered, "so that's how ISA students think."

"No, that's just her."

We looked to the top of the stairs. A girl with a promiscuous orange hair band in her shoulder-length brown hair looked down at us.

"Megan, dear, I love that clumsy girl facade, but everyone here already knows you're one of the best out of the student body when it comes to sparring."

"Ah?" the glasses girl, Megan, really took her contrived persona to heart, though I think there's some truth in it.

"So what can we help with, young boy?" the orange hair band asked. Some students appeared beside her.

"We're looking for our friend who was abducted by someone wearing your school's uniform. Before the abduction the last thing he said was that our friend would be 'perfect' for something."

"...and he had red hair and was drop-dead gorgeous," Sophia chimed. There was a slight pause.

"It's them," Megan said.

"Yes, it's definitely them," orange hair band replied.


	9. The Guide to the Kidnappers

"Luke, get Maruki out here. He'd know best where to find them since he's one of them," the yellow hair band ordered. One of the more dignified looking boys who had come out with her turned around and went back to where they had all come from. A few seconds later another boy walked out with the dignified looking one. This one had something odd about him.

"Yes, what is it Susan?" he asked in a somewhat affected nonchalant way.

"What a hottie!" Sophia looked lovestruck. I looked behind to see some girls in the student assembly share Sophia's same expression.

"Haven't I already told you to call me President Asamiya?" the yellow hairband admonished. The president walked up to Maruki and lifted his chin with her hand. "Where did you learn these manners?"

"I can't help it," he reciprocated the chin raise. "The face you make when you reproach me makes my heart flutter."

I could feel my face flush. I heard some girls let out a sigh. This was getting awkward. Susan broke away from Maruki and then looked cross for some reason, as if she had lost in that exchange.

"I'll let that go this time. For now lead these two to your friends, the ISA Gentlemen club. They have some business with them."

Maruki's personality seemed to change, "Oh no, I hope those guys haven't done anything stupid again."

"We think one of them kidnapped our friend," I told him.

He quickly responded, "Don't worry she's fine. They're all good people. They just could be a little whimsical though."

I felt somewhat relieved after Maruki defended them. Renae probably wouldn't be in danger then, but a part of me was anxious to see her safe and away from the red haired one.

"Those guys just don't understand how to act with normal people. They're all rich kids who have been shielded from regular society," Maruki told us while he lead us through a maze of hallways.

"Ah, that's perfect! Rich and handsome: two of the qualities I look for in men. Maybe I can get one of them to be my boyfriend," Sophia said.

Hah, that Sophia.

I noticed Maruki rolling his eyes at the comment. Something bugged me about him.

"Does that mean you're a scholarship student?" I asked him.

"Yes, how did you know?" he looked surprised.

"Well, it just sounded like you didn't associate yourself with the Gentlemen club members, but more with us," I told him.

"You're very observant kid," Maruki said this as he stopped in front of two doors. "Your friend should be in here along with that group of idiots. I'll have to talk to them later. In any case..."

Maruki opened the door in a very gentlemanly manner, "...welcome to the Gentlemen Club."


	10. Entrance of the Gentlemen

A cool breeze greeted us when the doors opened. I had to shield my eyes from the sudden gust of air. The site to which I opened my eyes to was that of Russian baroque extravagance. A 'princely' person sat on a throne flocked with what looked like his attendants.

"Dabro pazhalavat!"

_So This was the Gentlemen club...But wait, where was the red haired one._

"Vich vun vould..." the one with black framed glasses began. He looked back to the one on the throne and pushed his glasses up, "Do I really have to speak like this?"

The one seated on the throne nodded his head. The black framed glasses guy took a breath and started again with an artificial smile, "Vich vun of us vould you like to book?"

"Oh I get it. Its like a h-" Sophia was about to say, but I cut her off.

"We're not here for games. We're here to see if our friend, Renae, is safe."

"She is safe. Of this, I am certain," one of the brown haired attendants spoke.

A guy that looked like the identical twin of the first brown haired attendant spoke next, "But you mentioned games..."

"And we like games," they synchronized.

_Is this some sort of act..._

The princely figure spoke finally, "Ah, so this settles it. If you can win the Kotsushiki brothers' game, we'll take you directly to your friend."

"This boy is really good at deduction games, mind you," Sophia told them.

_Geez! Thanks for blurting out my advantage._

"Oh that's perfect for our usual game isn't it, brother," the twins took up an intimate pose with clasped hands looking at each other in a pretty affected manner.

"It certainly is," their faces were very close to each other.

This school is full of awkward moments.


	11. Gentlemen's Challenge

The shortest one of the attendants explained the rules to us, "Its the guess which twin is which game. You'll observe them as they entertain this lady here, and then they will go and change their clothes. You are allowed to ask them each three questions. After the questions you will have to guess which one is which."

_This seems straightforward. Now, lets see how they act..._

Sophia was whisked away to another room by the twins. Maruki stepped in cautiously after them.

The tall, stoic looking attendant noted, "Young boy, Maruki has been the only one to understand those two and distinguish them in their game thus far."

Apparently a changing room, a few minutes later Sophia exited adorned with a chic black dress and fur hat. She was completely enamored by the atmosphere and the attention she was receiving. The room we were lead into at that point was noticeably chilly. From behind me, Maruki placed a wool fleece on my shoulders with a warm smile.

_I see now._

I walked over to the stoic one and whispered my deduction to him. His eyes widened and then coalesced as he became composed. He nodded as I asked him two questions. I gave him some directions and then told him, "Keep it a secret, ok?"

I ran to Maruki, but before I said anything, "Ah, I can't give you my secret to telling them apart. That wouldn't be fair would it now?"

"Don't worry. I just want to share my plan with you." In the background I could hear Sophia as she ate some Russian hors d'oeuvres and laughed at what the twins were saying.

The princely one appeared near us suddenly and tried to listen in on our conversation. Maruki scolded him lightly saying, "Eavesdropping is very unbecoming of you, President Sakaki."

I looked cautiously toward Sophia and the twins.

_There! _

I had what I needed to expose them.


	12. Solution to the Gentlemen's Challenge

"So what was it you wanted to talked to me about, Edward?" Maruki asked me.

"Ah, that was nothing. Don't worry about it," I replied and then went over to the twins.

"Okay, why don't we introduce ourselves and the rest of the group to the boy," the glasses guy proposed. He have a slight bow and said, "my name is Otoya Kitani, pleased to meet you."

"I'm the head of this household, Sakaki Tahoma," the princely one proclaimed.

"Hi! My name is Henry Kunimura. Pleased to meet ya!" the shortest exclaimed energetically.

"Reno Himura," the stoic looking one stated with a slight nod.

"We're the Kotsushiki brothers," the twins chimed in together.

"The one with the Ushanka is Taruki," said the one without the fur hat. He had his brownish hair pushed back with a set of fuzzy earmuffs.

"And my brother's name is Ryutaru," said the other.

The last of the attendants sported a unisex coat, made from what looked like the muskrat fur, and an ushanka that brought out his feminine facial features, "Uhm... Da..buro... pazh...alavat. Hello." He stammered and then gave a quick bow. "Tokinoji Yokoya. You can call me Toki."

"Seeing how our other group is currently involved with your friend, we'll let them introduce themselves when they arrive here," Sakaki's statement assured us. "Well, on to the deduction game! Twins, go change your outfits, and please don't make us wait."

"Aye, aye comrade captain!" they said in a faked Russian accent.

It took a few minutes before they exited. During that time, we waited in the warmer reception room. They had apparently paid for the extra cooling for the event room in the form of large fans to imitate the harsh Russian chill. The two finally appeared in the regular school garb, and there weren't any noticeable differences between the two.

"You may proceed to the questioning round," Sakaki motioned.

"Ah, can you give me a few more minutes, I still need some more time to figure what to ask you," I said in a childish manner.

"What, you haven't figured a way to distinguish them yet?" Sophia admonished me.

I turned and gave a wink to Reno to which he nodded slightly. I had given him the signal to purposely walk over to Maruki and casually fake a trip ending with him pinning Maruki against a wall having his arms on Maruki's shoulder and arm.

"Hey, Himura sempai, are you alright?" Maruki asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Reno apologized

"Don't worry about it," Maruki replied.

I was looking at the reactions of the two twins. "The one on the left is Taruki!"

The twins were speechless for a moment. "What makes you say that, kid?" the one accused asked me.

I told the two to come closer and whispered my deduction to them, "Maruki is actually a girl and Taruki has feelings for her, right?"

Taruki blushed. "When did you figure it out?"

"Back when Sakaki came closer to Maruki and me in the event hall, you were the one who looked over since Sakaki likes Maruki too and you felt a little jealous."

The twins looked at each other and then stood up. "Alright guys, it's our loss."

"What! How?" Sophia and Sakaki questioned.

"Its a secret," the twins and I said in unison.


	13. A Crash Case

We were escorted out by Maruki and Luke after the whole ordeal with the Gentlemen's club. Maruki was about to leave us at the doorstep when we heard it. A shrill scream broke the relative silence of the evening.

"Help! I've been side swiped!" we heard from the corner of the block, "I'm also stuck."

"Hurry! She needs help!" Renee yelled as she dashed towards the scene.

"Sophie! Call the police!"

"I'm on it already," We heard from the winded Luke. He was wheezing as he caught up with us.

_He looked like he was in good shape. Hmm..._

As we rounded the corner we saw someone under what looked like a vending cart and a yellow motorcycle against the wall behind the cart. On the other side of the road someone was driving towards us on his bike at full braked prematurely and ended up skidding right into the wall. He got back up on his feet quickly and went to pick the cart off the vending shop girl. He wasn't wearing a helmet and was bleeding profusely from his face. He didn't seem to mind though.

_What a guy._

A few minutes later the police had arrived with two suspects. One was carrying a guitar on her back and the other looked familiar, but I couldn't tell from where.

"Sophie, isn't that the girl from the advertisement with that whatchya-ma-call-it soda commercial," Renee whispered.

"That's it. I knew she looked familiar," Sophie concurred.


	14. Relieving a Witness

The one with the guitar stated her name, "Ah, uhm, you can call me Ruth Roots."

The poster girl gave her statement, "Kiri Yuko, I'm in your hands." She smiled awkwardly and gave the peace sign. She seemed exhausted.

The EMT on call offered a towel to the man who had biked over to us so quickly. After wiping his brow with his button down shirt, the one with the bike walked over to where the other two were standing. "Hey, my name is Ken Taroki. I noticed the sound of wood being split from three blocks away so I biked over here to help out. Looks like you have the situation under control, I've got some errands I have to run. So if you wouldn't mind, I'll be..."

"Hold on there a second, we haven't ruled you out as a suspect," I told him.

"I was just in the vicinity and heard the scream. I biked as fast as I could from three blocks away to help her out. There are witnesses to support my alibi."

"We'll see about that," Katagi gestured. "What about the other two?"

"I was just walking to my agency to do a CV. I wasn't expecting to go today but they called me last minute to replace someone else who called in sick. I haven't got much time until it starts," Kiri said looking depressed with some kind of negative energy emanating from her self.

"Ah... Please excuse the inconvenience, but you may have to miss your op."

"Hey!" Kiri said. "You can't hold me from going!"

"Calm down," I replied. "I know it wasn't you."

"How do you know?" she replied back.

"Let me check your foot."

"Why are you looking at my feet?"

"Well for one thing you couldn't have ran to where we found you in the heels you were wearing unless you took them off and ran bare foot," I conjectured.

"Ah that makes perfect sense," Katagi offered. "There aren't any signs that your feet have been roughed, so I guess you're off the hook."

"Thank you young lad," Kiri said to me. "Now that I'm off the hook, may I head to my op?"

"Certainly," Katagi decided.

Kiri walked away from the scene.


	15. The Second Akamatsuing

Weeeoooo WEEeooo...

_What's this: sirens?_

A few cop cars passed by where we were. I turned back to the group. The one that called herself Ruth Roots had sped off from the scene on what appeared to be my motor cycle which happened to be parked near-by. I noticed the little detective press some button on his shoe which started making a whistling sound.

"Quick, Sophie, lend me your shoes," Edward said. She took her heels off. The boy kicked it toward the guitar girl, but it couldn't reach. Though, the kicked shoe was close to target.

"Hurry we've got to...," I was cut off by Renee.

"Leave it to commissioner Katagi for now, something big is happening down the street. Let's check it out."

"...Alright."

I, Luke LaRouge, stopped a car in the street and went to commandeer it.

"Hey!"

"Don't worry I've got it," Sophie shoved some bills into the driver's hand and gave a card with contact measures.

Maruki and I looked to each other: _rich people_.

...

We finally caught up to the police convoy thanks to Sophie. The area of the scene of the crime was already yellow-taped. We could see what looked to be a tractor trailer slammed into the side of a building with people running away from the collision. A barricade was set up already.

_What happened here? Is this the work of Akamatsu? _We had our answer almost immediately.

On the parapet stood the now familiar silhouette: "this building housed a factory responsible for children's toys. They bribed the local authorities and carelessly left a significant amount of lead in their toys. Who is paying for this mistake when it was found out? Not the owners but the factory workers and their supervisors who had no idea they were poisoning the children."

Luke ran through the barricade (quite clumsily I must say). I was pushed out of the way by the guards. Renee and Sophie were behind me somewhere, but I got separated from them.

We were short on time so I pushed through to get to the other side. After five stories of running we had reached the top. I looked quickly behind me to see if Luke had made it to the top yet. He came up stumbling and grabbing his chest (just how out of shape is he?)

In front of where we stood we could see the victim kneeling to the ominous Akamatsu.


	16. Failure of Two Justices

"Don't go through with it!," Edward shouted as he approached the scene.

I tried my emperor's eye on the figure as he turned his gleaming mask to our direction. "What are you after!" I yelled at the top of my voice.

The Akamatsu stood motionless but answered, "I've made deals with higher ups to cleanse the city of all wrongdoers, and if the culprits haven't reformed to a proper judiciary body and locked up, I go to do the job directly. If the higher up doesn't comply then he too is in position to get akamatsued.

I rushed towards him hoping to get a better glimpse of his face. "Don't do anything reckless Luke," I heard Edward in passing though I had no intention on wasting this opportunity to unmask the Akamatsu.

From a better vantage point, "I order you to step away from the victim and turn and face us."

_Nothing happened again. As I thought, it must be the mask._

I looked back to see where Edward had gone. He had taken out what looked like a tennis ball. He placed it on the ground and readied a kick. The kick was heading straight on target, but it wasn't fast enough to stop the exploding mask.

We were knocked to the ground.

_Darn! I missed my chance to learn more of Akamatsu._

_..._

Katagi was with his notebook asking Luke some questions while I went to find Renee and Sophie.

_Darn! I missed my chance to learn more of Akamatsu._

I have to bring them down even more so than the crime syndicate I had been looking out for. As I said, the Akamatsu incidents were unrelated to the syndicate. They weren't the type to do high profile as Akamatsu. I stand by what I believe that: no one has the right to take the life of another. Akamatsu must be stopped.


	17. Jim and Nora

In the past two months not many jobs were coming our way.

I, Jim Togaki, had to rent out my cycle just to keep up with the monthly bills. There was little hope until I met Nora at a bus stop. After the bus arrived and the passengers began walking out, we saw a lady clad in white from head to toe. She was eating a pizza slice rather... I noticed Nora having a similar reaction as she blushed a light rouge.

As we sat in the bus, I noticed that Nora seemed rather nervous carrying a black and bag which was filled to the seams with what looked like wads of money.

"So, yeah, you look like there's something bothering you. Is it the money? 'Cause if it is, I know someone would take your case for just seventy percent of that..." There was a blank stare from Nora. "Did I say seventy? I meant five percent."

...

Nora gave me the recap of her situation, "This is all because of something called FIB. It's a contest to see who would be able to make the most of the money they give out to the contestants. We're taken into games where we have to fib in order to grab assets from other contestants. The games require one to fib to the other contestants in order to win, but I only want to get the money back from the company that is doing this that my companions have lost. I don't want their ethics of lying to win out to genuine kindness.

"Since I am not so well-versed in this kind of business, I'm meeting with someone who might be able to help me outwit the FIB group."

At the next stop a man with white hair appeared and sat next to us. "Mind you this is not going to be some sort of ice cream social for you and your boyfriend here."

"Ah, we're not like that," Jim said

"Well pleased to meet you. My name's Ken Yamoto. Anyways, we were allowed to bring two items of our choosing. He can be the second item instead of the camera/pda I brought."

_He says that as if I'm worth less than that._

Several stops away we arrived at what looked like an abandoned warehouse. A tractor-trailer was parked conspicuously to its side. We made our way into the warehouse. There were people already gathered and a spotlight was cast to the podium. Soon people wearing white tuxedos and heavily white framed emo sun glasses gathered around the podium.

"As you may have guessed the objective of this round has to do with fibbing. There are twenty of you who are in the game as well as a few extras that some brought as per the two item rule. Find the number that the contestant has by asking ten questions round-robin style. There were two concentric rows of chairs near the middle of the ground," the emo-sunglasses man spoke.

"That seems too hard," Nora interrupted, "how are we supposed to know what kind of questions to ask, and there's no guarantee that the other person would cooperate."

"Don't worry. There will be a proctor for each of the contestant that will require the person being questioned to tell the truth half of the time. We have our ways to verify: primarily these bands that check perspiration and heart rate."

"Or we can just beat them up until they answer," I motioned. Two of the emo-proctors came from behind me and took my arms to drag me out of the warehouse."

"We do not tolerate physical violence in this setting. Psychological violence, though, is fair game."

Subsequently I found myself standing at the bus stop where we were dropped off.

...

"Looks like your boy friend was useless anyways." Ken Yamato noted.

"Like I said, he isn't my boyfriend." I, Nora Kazumoto, rebutted.

"I've already figured out how to find out their numbers of the other contestants. Its the part to keep you safe from being found out that's hard. You're too honest and would probably slip information that they could use to find our number."

I took a seat in one of the chairs; Ken stood behind me.

_I don't know why Ken would help me. He must have more important things to work out. Maybe I remind him of someone he knew and cared about._

We could hear distressed outbursts happening already: "Now I can't pay for the mortgage on our house!" Just then five or so of the players stormed the podium.

"Believe in Pal and you will be saved!"

And then things took an entirely different direction with the following revelation, "I guess it's time for Akamatsuing! I have bring down the conniving companies from taking advantage of common people and putting them in debt."

The emo-glasses people tried to ward off the Pal believers, but the numbers quickly turned against their favor. I could hear the tractor trailer revving its engine now...


	18. FIB and Pal

In the confusion, I, Nora Kazumoto, was carried out by Jim who had returned from where he was bounced. "I couldn't leave you to the dangers of such an underground ring where anything could happen."

"Wait, what about Ken!"

"I trust that someone like him must have gotten away to safety or is in the middle of the fray. Either way it's best we vacate the grounds."

"Just trust that he's ok...Got it."

We could hear the tractor trailer being driven off by the Pal fanatics. With our mouths open, we could see Ken hanging off from the back of the truck. Still with me in his arms, Jim continued running toward the truck. We reached the road and looked both ways: no cars.

"Looks like we'll have to postpone this game and next time," we heard this by loud speaker. "Look forward to the next round!"

"Oy oy, that means this isn't over yet."

"I never said that this was the only event. The games dwindle down the contestants until only one survives, so that there are sequential rounds. This was our second round."

"Guess we'll have to walk back to town."

"Guess so."

**…**

_WOOSH!_ I, Ken Yamato, was hanging on the back of the tractor-trailer to see where the Pal fanatics were going.

_I've got to get to the bottom of this before this becomes a cult rising even more problematic than the FIB game company._ _I had some leads into the PAL faction, but nothing as concrete as this. I had even less of an inkling about Akamatsu._

I thought this while we were cruising at something around sixty miles per hour from my judgment. _Where are they taking this? Did they notice me yet?_

We were entering the city now. _What is their intention? _

Suddenly we look a quick right and it wasn't at an intersection. We broke through the metal fence surrounding a small commercial district and our speed hadn't dropped. We were getting nearer and nearer to the back entrance of a convene store.

_I have to jump off now._

...

I, Ken Yamato, did a barrel roll into some trash bags when I jumped off the tractor trailer. The truck continued towards the convene now with its breaks screeching.

_Crash!_

The sound of metal grating hurt my ears even when I cupped my hands over them. I could only hope that no civilians were hurt. I ran toward the crash site.

"...child of destiny. Where is the child of destiny! She must be here somewhere. Pal told us so!"

"Get your hands off me and stay back," I could hear the scream of one of the convene workers. I saw the worker guarding a small child with a brush mop."

"I called the police already, so, you'd be wise to get out while you still can!" I yelled as the five overpowered the worker.

"Get away from Lanna!" I could hear a male voice accompanied by the sound of a motor cycle both of which were getting louder.

The Pal supporters ran away from the scene almost immediately after his entrance. I was still too far to catch up to them even if I ran due to the injuries I had taken from the fall. Luckily the cops were punctual and apprehended two of the Pal supporters.

I was bought in for questioning but I couldn't tell them how I got there truthfully or else my plan to foil the FIB competition would be hampered.

"I'm actually an undercover reporter looking for clues to lead toward Akamatsu," I told them in haste. "I planned to get into the Pal network to see if there were any leads there, but so far no luck. We need to do a full sweep of the area though before Akamatsu does anything rash"

I ran to the top flight along with a few cops. We found a teenaged boy in school clothes and a young boy about the same age as the protected girl facing the Akamatsu, but it looked like they didn't notice me. The young boy took out a tennis ball and began to kick it towards the Akamatsu, but it didn't reach in time. I was knocked down by the blast.


	19. Ken's Request

_This is just crazy. How could such a lunatic be running around the city? And, he says that he's connected to the "higher ups." Just how far does his reach go? _Edward pondered this as he brushed off some debris and wiped the factory owner's blood from his clothes. If this continues, the whole city will have to live under the threat of Akamatsu every step they take.

_Wait! _I almost forgot: what happened to Luke?

"Luke, are you ok? Can you hear me?!"

"I'm fine, don't worry. _Cough, cough..."_

"Are you two boys alright?" a white haired man asked from the farther side of the room.

_When did he show up?_

"Don't worry I'm not from Akamatsu or the Pal cult," he began. "I was just doing some independent investigation into a black market company scam and got caught up in this mess."

"Still we don't know much about you. We can't trust you just yet. We'll wait until the police are done questioning you"

"I have two other witnesses that can provide my alibi. Just don't mention anything about the black market company to the police."

I was in the mist of two cases that had possibly had no connection to the crime syndicate, but I think these two should be dealt with first. Maybe there could be connections to the syndicate hidden among these conspiracies. The white haired guy seemed pretty interesting with his leads.

_This could get interesting rather quickly._


	20. A Date with Carrie

_What is the meaning of this?_ Wright thought this when he heard about the factory Akamatsu incident. Its been the third case this week. What is their reach? Also, the results of the autopsy continued to perplex me. The more thought about it, the only reasonable answer that could fit would be that they were all clones. This information cannot be made public or else there would be a mass panic. How can I stay one step ahead of this questionable group?

_Buzz!_

I got a call from Carrie, "Hey Wright, can we meet sometime today and go out somewhere nice."

I didn't think I should be taking a break from work today, but something told me that I needed to clear my mind before tackling this case full-fledged. So I answered "Sure thing. What do you have planned?"

"I don't know. I was thinking that we could maybe do something like: walking in the city, eating at a café, then another stroll in a park."

"Sounds good. I'll be free after three today we can meet after that."

**…**

_Its unusual for Wright to take time off from work just for me. Especially with the responsibility of his post he's been pretty cold to me in general. I know that he still has feelings for me but he isn't too public about that. I'm actually fairly excited for this day trip. I went to the spot we promised to meet outside of the JSDF building._

I was sitting on a bench waiting when Wright walked up casually with his coat across his shoulder. He called out to me without a smile, "Hi, Carrie."

"Hey, Wright. I already planned out the day. We can walk in the financial district for a while then have a lunch outside this art gallery I've been wanting to check out. There's an exhibit of a young genius painter/ sculptor that I've been wanting to see. Finally to round off the day: a stroll through the hanging garden. What d'ya think, Wright?"

"Hahha, ok, ok we'll do all of that,"

"I liked your enthusiasm on that one, huff," I said playfully.

"It's good we can go and watch the big corporate guys from the streets right; it's your pet peeve isn't it?"

"Hahha, sure is!"

We took a cab to the district which took about twenty minutes. As we got off we noticed not many people were out on the streets.

"Hmm, it looks like people are so scared of Akamatsu that they won't walk out in broad daylight. How times have changed."

"Well, it keeps the fat cats and their minions at bay. Not that I'm condoning their actions. I'm looking to bring this group under justice as much as much as any other terrorist group."

"Now they have to do their scheming carefully," I quipped in.

"The other major case has to do with the Finnish and an underground movement to bring Japan to its knees. These are my two top priorities at the moment."

"That's true… you are so busy right now. Why did you decide to take the afternoon off?"

"I just wanted some fresh air, and I'm not talking about the weather," he looked at me with a coy glare.

_I felt a chill run down my spine, but at the same time a warmth from the fact that he needed me._

We spent about half an hour just small talking while keeping alert for any suspicious activity in the financial district. It was as he said: there were very few people outside with frightened looks on their faces. Akamatsu has fundamentally changed this city.

_Next on the agenda: Lunch._

I had a place in mind that my colleagues at work recommended for the two of us. Pandoraba: Its specialty was its breads and its somewhat-of-a mascot man with an unseemly afro. I was excited for this. We took another cab to the downtown area.

"Ah stop here," I directed to the driver. To Wright: "Here we are: Pandoraba!"

"Hahha, you seem so excited about this," Wright answered.

"Breads that are from all of the world and original Japanese breads, what's not to like?"

"We'll see sure enough."

A half hour later, with our stomachs filled with delicatessen bread, I led Wright toward a little known garden called: Pian Nimbus's Hanging Garden. We could hear someone singing within the mass of willow trees.

_Was there some event occurring?_

**…**

_Singing._

After a bit Carrie spoke, "I wish there was something more I could do to help you, Wright. I feel that that when you need me most all I can do is reporting on the usual scumbags and nothing about the real terrors.

"Please don't be concerned so much about me. There may be a time when I'd have to distance you for your own protection."

_Again with that singing..._

I continued, "It'd be temporary at most...

A girl in a gothic lolita outfit interrupted us by running across the park nearly colliding with me.

_Was she crying?_

**...**

We walked further, "Are you worried, Wright. Aren't these cases getting more and more dangerous?"

"That's one of the reasons I took a half day at work. I just needed to clear my mind," he answered back.

Just then we ran into a child and his babysitter. The young boy looked us over quickly then said, "Hey, Aren't you that reporter lady who goes after the corporate crime rings?"

"Look your fans come from all age groups, aren't you happy dear," I noted.

"Well, kid, if you want I can give you my signature if you'd like it."

We were interrupted.

_Buzz!_

I picked up the bluetooth receiver, "This is Double Hawk. Over!"

"Hear you loud and clear. Over."

"We have suspicious activity around the Verve Quantum Computing Center. There are people entering the lower levels wearing cloaks. Check it out. Over."

"Aff. Over," I Turned to Carrie now, "Carrie..."

She cut me off, "I know, I know... Just be careful."


	21. The Verve Incident

"Narabhima is a class 0 criminal. His supporters have rallied and stormed the front gate. They have infiltrated the bottom levels as far as out intelligence knows. Even with my skills it would take an hour to crack through their encryption."

"Alright, ready our usual team for deployment along with a JSDF entourage. I'll be there in 0030 hours."

I hailed a taxi and headed toward Verve.

**...**

We had a post set up already when I reached the scene. The JSDF had their men surrounding our van as well as the entrance to the Verve center. I entered our van base. I saw around me Kyoya Neijo, Pai Pasoda, Matthew Hatsuda, Zach Shoemaker, Danzo Hoji, and Shinusuke Matagi. As usual Shinusuke's son, Double Hawk was absent.

"What's our status?" I asked Danzo.

"The Verve center has some top secret project occurring at the bottom two levels and doesn't want any equipment damaged."

"So we can't go guns blazing, huh?" asked a worried Matthew.

"Doesn't seem to be the case."

"I suppose that they're demanding that Narabhima be released."

_Whatever data they have down there is of most important use to the higher ups. I'm thinking that they don't want that information leaked._

"Let's have the JSDF's analysis of the situation," I demanded.

"Right, give him the break down," Kyoya gestured to a nearby JSDF member.

"My brother and I are part of a special ops unit within JSDF. We will go in and verify the intent of this mob takeover of the Verve center."

"And what does your spec-ops unit have up your sleeves."

"That's classified information."

"Okay, then head out. Lets just see how useful you are."

**...**

As I, Sousuke Ahihoo explained to the investigation head, my older brother and I are a special subgroup within the JSDF. We have the hereditary trait called Truth's eyes. We can immediately discern whether or not a person is lying just by looking at them. It is invaluable in these kind of interrogations. The only limitation is that we can use it for about five minutes without blacking the other out and ten minutes at a time before we would have to wait twenty or so hours for the eyes to regenerate.

So, we exited the mobile base and made our way to the front gates again.

"In T minus 3 seconds when we interact with the first of the mob," Itochi addressed me.

"Aff."

"Ok, then lets go..." we dashed towards the entrance way and made it by the JSDF sentries on the ground floor. Our task was to take information from the mob on the lower floors as to what their objective was.

We ran through the corridors making turns as indicated by the one they called "double hawk." As we descended into the building, I kept on thinking about how well trained my brother was. He was top in his field and ruthless on the battle field. We finally found the first of the Narabhima mob. Itochi dashed toward him, grabbed him by the neck, and pushed him against the corridor's wall.

Ten minutes left

He looked at the man and and said, "You are weak. You must know nothing about the Narabhima mob's reason to be here." Itochi threw the man aside. We ran from one end to the other interrogating all that we met finding out names of their superiors. They didn't know anything else of any use.

Seven minutes left.

When we found their superior we had to be careful since they were armed with knives. Our JSDF armor was ineffective with sharp objects since our team was under funded. However, that wasn't an issue since we were trained in closed space combat or CSC.

Five minutes left.

We made it down to what looked like the main bosses. A hulk of a man and a smart looking lady stood by a team of their computer technicians. We would have to take the large man as a team. It took us about three minutes to grapple the guy to a submissive state, and then we used Truth's Eyes on him.

My eyesight began to blur and we still haven't found out their intentions.

Two minutes left. Itochi was grilling the woman now. Turns out the real operation was a floor below. But there's not much time, we had to relay this to the mobile base.

"We want to use these super computers to find the access codes to Narabhima's jail," is what we got from her.

"Go," Itochi said, "I'll handle this, motioning to the woman who looked as dangerous as the big guy..

**...**

Sousuke arrived at the mobile base, "We have confirmation. The Narabhima mob is trying to override the security system to Narabhima's jail complex."

"Thought as much," Danzo spoke up.

"I'm on the phone with double hawk," Kyoya began," turns out he's got visual on the first lower level but not the second yet."

_Good._

"Alright, our mission is to capture the mob members alive and ascertain the integrity of their super computing system," I ordered. "Make sure you leave them in good condition for interrogation. Bring them up as you contain them"

"Yes, sir!"

**...**

_This will make a good situation for me to use Death's eyes. I'll be able to dig deeper into Narabhima's hierarchy after a few interviews with the peons. _

It took about ten minutes for the first of the mob to be apprehended.

"Leave me alone with them cuffed."

"Yes, sir."

**...**

I looked at the report given to me by the other members of the unit, "So lets see Gregory Ganahona, Hector Hesse. ...normal ordinary citizens by day with the secret life of Narabhima supporters."

I began using Death's Eye_._

With a dazed look the two got up and exited the mobile base's prisoner detainment compartment.

"Looks like he's done it again. I don't know how he does it, but he's the best at interrogations. They always take him where he needs to go," Pai told the rest of the crew.

"Matt provide back up for me; I'm going in."

**...**

Before I knew it, we had already descended to the second basement level. With listless eyes the two detainees marched toward the gentle hum of the supercomputer rooms. The Verve center was a labyrinth to non-personnel, so the Narabhima mob must have had vast intelligence to occupy the center this quickly.

_Now i'm pumped to take down this crime ring._


	22. Incident After Incident

We had to give our statements to the police. After that, we waited for the police to clear out before we headed back toward the high school. Luke told us, "it's best you wash up and take some rest at our campus and then get a ride from there to your houses."

"That sounds great," Sophie quipped.

"Edward, you never listen to me. Next time I don't want you to be running into the crime scene like that, especially when you're dealing with that Akamatsu."

"...I'm sorry."

"Leave the kid alone, he can handle himself just fine," Luke praised me.

Sophie butted in again, "Yeah and there's you. What gives you the hootspa to go into a situation like that?"

Luke smiled back but said nothing.

**...**

Back at the rich high school, we were given a temporary room to sit in. Luke left us to the glasses girl from the student council, "Oh my, oh my! You got to see Akamatsu in person."

"Yeah and it was so scary," Renee answered

"You know that there's actually a steady growth of supporters for Akamatsu..."

"Don't be one of them," I glared back after I put a new shirt on. "No one has the right to take the life of another."

"..."

The yellow hair band president came into our room, "We've secured a armored car to take you back home."

"You didn't have to go that far!" Renee and I said in unison.

"Classy people... I could see why they took the precaution," Sophie spoke to us.

Renee and I looked at each other and shrugged.

**...**

The next morning the news had gotten out about the Akamatsu incident, but there was another story that was running in parallel to compete for attention: "Narabhima's supporters have taken over the supercomputers at the Verve research center. The JSDF have already been dispatched..."

_The Dark Syndicate, Akamatsu, the PAL fanatics, and now Narabhima supporters... This city is getting more and more hazardous to live in peace. I should tell Renee and her father that they should relocate temporarily for their own safety. _

At breakfast, "Renee and Mr. Kaguro..."

"I know what you're going to say, but I've got faith in our city's police and our country's JSDF that things will become safe again soon. ...though it wouldn't hurt to take a break. Hahhaha "

_Like you were getting jobs lately..._

"All in all, golden week is coming up, so we can do something then, right?" Renee spoke up.

"It's not that I'm against having some rest and relaxation... No, on second thought, we should do what we can to help out."

"I've got some leads toward the Narabhima mob through the old detective channels. You kids don't go trying to find them though. Now let me see, it was near the beginning of the Narabhima mob sightings that the last section chief caught wind of a plot of using a chemical weapon on an Indian, Himalayan train through a connection of JSDF. The images of the people on the train were gruesome."

"Do you have the files on that?"

"Its best you don't see them."

"Please it's important."

"It'll take a while to sort through, so why don't the two of you take a walk in the park for some time until I find them."

"Sounds like a plan," I responded.

**...**

_Time to clear out my mind: I needed this if I was going to address the problem of the Narabhima mob. I don't want to put Renee or her father in more danger as it is. With the threat of the dark syndicate looming over me, additional risks shouldn't be taken. But, this problem has to be dealt with._

I was interrupted by Renee, "Do you hear that singing?"

"Yeah."

_If only I was back to my high school self this outing would have been a date. I've to find a way to reverse this process or Renee and I won't be able to enjoy the prime of our lives. _

Just then we bumped into another couple.

After a quick look, ""Hey, Aren't you that reporter lady who goes after the corporate crime rings?"

"Why, yes," a terse response.

"I watch you segments all the time."

Her partner talked, "Look your fans come from all age groups, aren't you happy dear."

_I can't correct him or my identity would be known. _

After another assessment:_ Something didn't seem right about him. It irked me._

"Well, kid, if you want I can give you my signature if you'd like it..."

We were interrupted by a cellphone buzz. The man gestured that he should take this call, "We have suspicious activity around the Verve Quantum Computing Center. There are people entering the lower levels wearing cloaks. Check it out. Over."

"Aff. Over," He turned to his partner now, "Carrie..."

She cut him off, "I know, I know... Just be careful."

We were left with the reporter lady, Carrie Tacoma. She looked a little upset.

"What's the matter, Miss Tacoma?" I asked.

"Nothing, I just get worried for him in his line of work. I really can't tell you more than that."

_That feeling again._

"I'll be off then, its nice to think I reach out to children like yourselves."

**...**

After it began to get dark, we headed back.

As we entered the home, Renee's father quickly told us "hush and watch the television with me."

"...JSDF special task force agents have stepped in to capture the Narabhima mob in action as they plan to use the computing network to unlock the security system of Narbhima's detention facility. The Verve computing center is our nation's finest supercomputing center used to model complex human biometric reactions as well as cloud computing for weather analysis. We surmised that they could network the system to our power grid and turn off the security of Narabhima's detention center in less than a minute. We can only hope that that mad man would never see the light of day again let alone the others in the center who are anywhere from class A criminals to class 0 criminals."

Renee looked worried.

_Was there something I could say or do to calm her down?_


	23. Luke in Underworld

_This is what I do in my spare time on weekdays: I go to my gangster family's stomping grounds and challenge them to Go matches. This helps me keep in touch with my family connections. _

Luke LaRouge thought this as he surveyed his surroundings..

_However, this one person caught my attention at one of these meetings. _

He didn't say anything but kept chewing gum. I could tell that his mind was on something bigger than petty crime. His outfit was rather ridiculous looking, having a flamboyant fur neck piece and black diamond patterns on his dark brown jacket.

"Hey, guys, Akamatsu is doin another of his stunts. Check it out," one of the lesser thugs mentioned.

We glanced at each other...

"...Just in: we have a visual of Akamatsu, 'Today's Akamatsu is of another government fat cat who subsidized his own family's ethanol farm when things were beginning to sour. Again another example of someone using the government's money for their own greed. ...And the government's money is our money so there has to be some retribution to us. Our government has a mounting budget deficit and practices such as these will not correct this problem."

_Outrageous!_

I looked back at the guy, nothing could be noticed different except that his eyes narrowed slightly.

_This broadcast is just twenty minutes from here by foot._

"Hey," I spoke to the provincial don, "I'd like to ask a favor from you."

**...**

_I, Luke Larouge, was speeding on the interprovince with the intriguing guy sitting behind me for some reason._

"What made you pick me out of the group to go out with you?"

"I could tell you were different from that riff-raff."

"How so?"

"You're one of those over-thinking guys aren't you?"

"Like they say : don't leave a pebble unturned."

"So, what do you think about this Akamatsu guy,?"

"He should be imprisoned for good. Even with his intentions to make society better, he has to atone for his crime not with his death but with his life

Luke smiled wryly, "So you'd rather see the inequities that are so inherent in our system."

"We can hope for the better under our system rather than stay under the maniac rule of one man."

"One man, huh?"

_No telling what's going through Akamatsu's mind but his penchant for retribuution may be needed to combat my father's enormous reach._

**_..._**

_The real purpose I was in this underground crime ring was to prove that there's a seriel killer on the loose who's not all powerful. _

I , Kushal Meer, work undercover for a private organization from overseas. We have a rigorous training program for detectives and it is highly secretive. One other person from the same organization is working on the same case as I am, but he's gone the good path. If I want to show the series killer's un-omnipotency , I can show it by surviving in the crime ring. That means he cannot reach his target of killing off all the criminals of the world. This was serious he had already targeted around a thousand overseas criminals and hundreds more in Japan.

The cause of their deaths except for a handful were: Strokes. The other cases were odd ones probably set up as a testing of the poignancy of the weapons' effects.

For now I have to keep on succeeding in the underground realm. And for this I shouldn't be willing to check out Akamatsu, but my sense of justice noted that this cannot be overlooked. I would stop it if possible.

...


	24. Eye on Narabhima

"Status," I, Wright Yasogami, spoke to Double-Hawk.

"We've reached level five and our objective is the control center in sector 4 of level 7. Over," was what I got from him.

The two zombies I procured had been useful in getting this far but one of them had to go and get in the way of enemy fire so we were down to one. He was to show us to the higher chain of command there before having a stroke.

After a few more peons we got through to the control center. Hector had his stroke. I wasn't questioned by anyone as to why he had fallen since they were used to it by now.

We found out that we were too late. A siren was blaring as we entered with red screens in all directions. The Computers had been hacked.

"Hoo Hoo Hoo, Fiordore Wilkins makes it before being caught," chuckled a rather large man, " Fiordore Wilkins say Your'all too late. Narabhima was set free. We supporters pushed past to the gates to his detention center. "

Who knows who else had been released along with him. The mob's motives were still unknown.

His odd way of talking in third person allowed me to use death's eye again on the man. He fell down with a thud.

"Hurry round up as many JSDF troops as you can and head to the Las Heika top security detention center."


	25. Viewing the Situation from Outside

We had to give our statements to the police. After that, we waited for the police to clear out before we headed back toward the high school. Luke told us, "it's best you wash up and take some rest at our campus and then get a ride from there to your houses."

"That sounds great," Sophie quipped.

"Edward, you never listen to me. Next time I don't want you to be running into the crime scene like that, especially when you're dealing with that Akamatsu."

"...I'm sorry."

"Leave the kid alone, he can handle himself just fine," Luke praised me.

Sophie butted in again, "Yeah and there's you. What gives you the hootspa to go into a situation like that?"

Luke smiled back but said nothing.

**...**

Back at the rich high school, we were given a temporary room to sit in. Luke left us to the glasses girl from the student council, "Oh my, oh my! You got to see Akamatsu in person."

"Yeah and it was so scary," Renee answered

"You know that there's actually a steady growth of supporters for Akamatsu..."

"Don't be one of them," I glared back after I put a new shirt on. "No one has the right to take the life of another."

"..."

The yellow hair band president came into our room, "We've secured a armored car to take you back home."

"You didn't have to go that far!" Renee and I said in unison.

"Classy people... I could see why they took the precaution," Sophie spoke to us.

Renee and I looked at each other and shrugged.

**...**

The next morning the news had gotten out about the Akamatsu incident, but there was another story that was running in parallel to compete for attention: "Narabhima's supporters have taken over the supercomputers at the Verve research center. The JSDF have already been dispatched..."

_The Dark Syndicate, Akamatsu, the PAL fanatics, and now Narabhima supporters... This city is getting more and more hazardous to live in peace. I should tell Renee and her father that they should relocate temporarily for their own safety. _

At breakfast, "Renee and Mr. Kaguro..."

"I know what you're going to say, but I've got faith in our city's police and our country's JSDF that things will become safe again soon. ...though it wouldn't hurt to take a break. Hahhaha "

_Like you were getting jobs lately..._

"All in all, golden week is coming up, so we can do something then, right?" Renee spoke up.

"It's not that I'm against having some rest and relaxation... No, on second thought, we should do what we can to help out."

"I've got some leads toward the Narabhima mob through the old detective channels. You kids don't go trying to find them though. Now let me see, it was near the beginning of the Narabhima mob sightings that the last section chief caught wind of a plot of using a chemical weapon on an Indian, Himalayan train through a connection of JSDF. The images of the people on the train were gruesome."

"Do you have the files on that?"

"Its best you don't see them."

"Please it's important."

"It'll take a while to sort through, so why don't the two of you take a walk in the park for some time until I find them."

"Sounds like a plan," I responded.

**...**

_Time to clear out my mind: I needed this if I was going to address the problem of the Narabhima mob. I don't want to put Renee or her father in more danger as it is. With the threat of the dark syndicate looming over me, additional risks shouldn't be taken. But, this problem has to be dealt with._

I was interrupted by Renee, "Do you hear that singing?"

"Yeah."

_If only I was back to my high school self this outing would have been a date. I've to find a way to reverse this process or Renee and I won't be able to enjoy the prime of our lives. _

Just then we bumped into another couple.

After a quick look, ""Hey, Aren't you that reporter lady who goes after the corporate crime rings?"

"Why, yes," a terse response.

"I watch you segments all the time."

Her partner talked, "Look your fans come from all age groups, aren't you happy dear."

_I can't correct him or my identity would be known. _

After another assessment:_ Something didn't seem right about him. It irked me._

"Well, kid, if you want I can give you my signature if you'd like it..."

We were interrupted by a cellphone buzz. The man gestured that he should take this call, "We have suspicious activity around the Verve Quantum Computing Center. There are people entering the lower levels wearing cloaks. Check it out. Over."

"Aff. Over," He turned to his partner now, "Carrie..."

She cut him off, "I know, I know... Just be careful."

We were left with the reporter lady, Carrie Tacoma. She looked a little upset.

"What's the matter, Miss Tacoma?" I asked.

"Nothing, I just get worried for him in his line of work. I really can't tell you more than that."

_That feeling again._

"I'll be off then, its nice to think I reach out to children like yourselves."

**...**

After it began to get dark, we headed back.

As we entered the home, Renee's father quickly told us "hush and watch the television with me."

"...JSDF special task force agents have stepped in to capture the Narabhima mob in action as they plan to use the computing network to unlock the security system of Narbhima's detention facility. The Verve computing center is our nation's finest supercomputing center used to model complex human biometric reactions as well as cloud computing for weather analysis. We surmised that they could network the system to our power grid and turn off the security of Narabhima's detention center in less than a minute. We can only hope that that mad man would never see the light of day again let alone the others in the center who are anywhere from class A criminals to class 0 criminals."

Renee looked worried.

_Was there something I could say or do to calm her down?_


	26. A Partner in the Underworld

_This is what I do in my spare time on weekdays: I go to my gangster family's stomping grounds and challenge them to Go matches. This helps me keep in touch with my family connections. _

Luke LaRouge thought this as he surveyed his surroundings..

_However, this one person caught my attention at one of these meetings. _

He didn't say anything but kept chewing gum. I could tell that his mind was on something bigger than petty crime. His outfit was rather ridiculous looking, having a flamboyant fur neck piece and black diamond patterns on his dark brown jacket.

"Hey, guys, Akamatsu is doin another of his stunts. Check it out," one of the lesser thugs mentioned.

We glanced at each other...

"...Just in: we have a visual of Akamatsu, 'Today's Akamatsu is of another government fat cat who subsidized his own family's ethanol farm when things were beginning to sour. Again another example of someone using the government's money for their own greed. ...And the government's money is our money so there has to be some retribution to us. Our government has a mounting budget deficit and practices such as these will not correct this problem."

_Outrageous!_

I looked back at the guy, nothing could be noticed different except that his eyes narrowed slightly.

_This broadcast is just twenty minutes from here by foot._

"Hey," I spoke to the provincial don, "I'd like to ask a favor from you."

**...**

_I, Luke Larouge, was speeding on the interprovince with the intriguing guy sitting behind me for some reason._

"What made you pick me out of the group to go out with you?"

"I could tell you were different from that riff-raff."

"How so?"

"You're one of those over-thinking guys aren't you?"

"Like they say : don't leave a pebble unturned."

"So, what do you think about this Akamatsu guy,?"

"He should be imprisoned for good. Even with his intentions to make society better, he has to atone for his crime not with his death but with his life

Luke smiled wryly, "So you'd rather see the inequities that are so inherent in our system."

"We can hope for the better under our system rather than stay under the maniac rule of one man."

"One man, huh?"

_No telling what's going through Akamatsu's mind but his penchant for retribuution may be needed to combat my father's enormous reach._

**_..._**

_The real purpose I was in this underground crime ring was to prove that there's a seriel killer on the loose who's not all powerful. _

I , Kushal Meer, work undercover for a private organization from overseas. We have a rigorous training program for detectives and it is highly secretive. One other person from the same organization is working on the same case as I am, but he's gone the good path. If I want to show the series killer's un-omnipotency , I can show it by surviving in the crime ring. That means he cannot reach his target of killing off all the criminals of the world. This was serious he had already targeted around a thousand overseas criminals and hundreds more in Japan.

The cause of their deaths except for a handful were: Strokes. The other cases were odd ones probably set up as a testing of the poignancy of the weapons' effects.

For now I have to keep on succeeding in the underground realm. And for this I shouldn't be willing to check out Akamatsu, but my sense of justice noted that this cannot be overlooked. I would stop it if possible.

...


	27. Action at Verve

"Status," I, Wright Yasogami, spoke to Double-Hawk.

"We've reached level five and our objective is the control center in sector 4 of level 7. Over," was what I got from him.

The two zombies I procured had been useful in getting this far but one of them had to go and get in the way of enemy fire so we were down to one. He was to show us to the higher chain of command there before having a stroke.

After a few more peons we got through to the control center. Hector had his stroke. I wasn't questioned by anyone as to why he had fallen since they were used to it by now.

We found out that we were too late. A siren was blaring as we entered with red screens in all directions. The Computers had been hacked.

"Hoo Hoo Hoo, Fiordore Wilkins makes it before being caught," chuckled a rather large man, " Fiordore Wilkins say Your'all too late. Narabhima was set free. We supporters pushed past to the gates to his detention center. "

Who knows who else had been released along with him. The mob's motives were still unknown.

His odd way of talking in third person allowed me to use death's eye again on the man. He fell down with a thud.

"Hurry round up as many JSDF troops as you can and head to the Las Heika top security detention center."


	28. Wright on Track

Luke and I, Kushal Meer, were too late to see any of the action. The cops had cordoned off the street and were driving away from the scene.

"Let's Follow them."

"No problem."

We were speeding on the inter-prefecture behind the cops. They didn't seem to notice us. That was good since we were going 20 km/hr faster than the speed limit. We were speeding as such until we stopped in front of this monolithic type of structure.

_So this is where the most notorious villains were kept. _

We could see a cautioning siren light sweeping the premises. The locks must have disengaged by now if the Narabhina mob had been successful. This was a good chance to use the emperor's eye to persuade them to work for me.

**…**

I, Wright Yasogami, reached the detention center and hurried to the command platform. My team could already see hundreds of men and women storming toward our patrol lineup. We could also see the hooded Narabhima supporters fight against this torrent toward their master.

"Double Hawk get me a cover on the radius of 100 km from our point in . Though our first priority is returning Narabhima to the center. Over. Ahihoo Brothers get visual confirmation."

"Aff. Over.:"

_Now to get to work on the convicts until we heard from the ahihoo brothers again._

I turned them on.

I knew that the entire roster of criminals like the back of my hand. I just need to make eye contact with them. One Down. Two down. And I continued that way until about half of the convicts had strokes. I was getting rid of the scum that would be eventually be released back into the real world when their time was over.

I finally got toward the back of the crowd and entered the monolith facility. Narabhima was here somewhere. I was getting excited.


	29. From Narabhima

"Narabhima sama" one with cloaked apparel referred to the middle-aged man in a wheelchair. "We have come here to release you and go through with the destined Gorious Wednesday.

"My Children... how I've waited," were the first words off his lips.

"We've missed your guidance for a long time," a second supporter gestured.

"We will establish a new Japan," he paused. "Starting here in Las Heika city."

"Its 0800 hours until the reaction occurs."

"Let us secure ourselves in the promised place now."

**...**

_This doesn't feel right._

This was what I, Luke LaRouge, thought as my cohort guided the pack leaders in the prisoners entourage to where the mob boss's base was.

_Something big is happening. Somewhere..._

We took to the streets again before the police caught up with us. As I've stated before: I'll use whatever means to make the world a better place for Yunnaly. Using ex convicts to get back at father would only speed up the process. I already established a network between mob bosses and this was just additions to the growing movement to deconstruct my father's plot to control everything.

"This incident has to be related to the Verve takeover. Their motives couldn't have as short cited as causing mass panic. "

"Smells foul."

"Let's turn back."

"You turn back. I'll guide the others to our base" was Kushal's answer.

"Suite yourself. I feel that my help is needed elsewhere."

I left Kushal standing at the side of the nearest curb.

**...**

_No more convicts were in the area alive. _I thought this as I surveyed the satellite feed.

"We need to find Narabhima and stop his followers from carrying his plans," Zach spoke in the deafening silence.

"Right. "

"I've got a bogey homing on to your position from 4o'clock from north." Double Hawk addressed us over the intercom.

"Reinforcements or transport most probably." Danzo interrupted.

"They must be rendezvousing somewhere close by. Seal all exits."

"We don't have enough men. They must have accounted for our numbers." one of the Ahihoo brothers relayed.

"Damn!" I yelled out in frustration.

**...**

"Narabhima sama, We apologize for taking you through the sewage system."

"I wasn't meant to survive this anyway isn't it right number 14."

"You can't be serious!"

"Yes we need you to stay here for the true gorious Wednesday to fall through."

"Number 14!"

_Gunshot._

"Don't concern yourselves and follow me," a woman's voice commanded.

_Helicopter blades spinning._


	30. Chronan('s) Views (on) the Narabhima Sce

Renee, Mr. Kaguro, and I had been glued to the TV watching the events unfold. The convicts had amalgamated around two men on a scooter. They disbanded and started running toward the two on the scooter. The JSDF moved in to take out the stragglers. They then entered the complex.

Mr. Kaguro got up and opened one of the file cabinets. He took out a file and handed it to Renee.

"Narabhima's last act before being apprehended was the chemical weapon use on a train in the Himalayas. His object was to take out a group of monks who had taken a stance against his beliefs that a new world order was needed. Here are the pictures from that train:"

_Contorted bodies filled the cars of the train in the Himalayas. It was gruesome._

Renee clasped her hand over her mouth and looked away hastily. I grabbed them since they wouldn't show it to a kid.

"Hey, Edward don't look!"

I thumbed through the rest of them and was thoroughly disgusted with what Narabhima had orchestrated. And now, he wants to use the same tactics here in Japan.? Helpless in my form right now, I could do nothing but watch.

_Hopefully our JSDF men and women will have the mob apprehended ._

I looked up at the TV. The Screen panned to a sewage tunnel on the side of the facility. A dead Narabhima was recovered and There at the end of the tunnel was a helicopter hovering above the area. Seconds later the helicopter and the few Narabhima mob that were still intact had escaped over the ocean.

_We didn't make it._


	31. Case at Heika Towers

"...We apologize for the cut transmission, but that's all the footage we can get until further allowed clearance by the JDSF..." the report came.

"That shouldn't be!" Mr. Kaguro was outraged.

_Old man..._

"Father," Renee tried to calm him down.

"This is absurd. Narabhima is dead and his supporters are to blame for it. That could only mean that his supporters have something big and dangerous in mind. "

"Ossan, what do you mean?"

"If this is part of his plan to create a new japan, we could all have our lives in danger. This would only ignite further action by his supporters"

_Buzz!_

I took the chance, "Ah, something just came up. I have to go to the scientist's house."

"Wait Edward..."

I slammed the door cutting Renee off.

**...**

"You must have heard the news, right Sean?" The scientist spoke to me over the cell.

"Yeah, and I want to stop the Narabhima supporters before anything terrible happens."

"I've got some new gadgets and leads for you so hurry to my house."

"Got ya."

**...**

I used by battery powered scooter to zip through the pedestrian traffic. If they have taken out Narabhima that means that something big must have happened in their ranks. Hopefully it wasn't the acquisition of some wmd. That's the only thing that crossed my mind at the moment.

I arrived at the scientist's place.

"Hey, Sean. You got here fast using my invention right"

"Yes , Yes, your ingenious inventions never fail me."

"The lead I want you to check up on is a Indian diplomat living in the Las Heika Towers. He is a goods friend of one of my good friends. He's had a few run ins with the Narabhima cult in his own country so he knows what their capabilities are."

"That will be helpful."

"I want you to work with him and discover the intent of the cult now that Narabhima has died."

...

So I zipped through the city towards Las Heika Towers. When I arrived I was surprised to see a crowd formed around around a police cordoned area on the side of the tower. I pushed my way toward the center and inspector Katagi taking notes from three people one of which was possibly the culprit.

"so we have here a Student, a Teacher and a Freelance Computer Engineer. We have on tape each entering the PC lobby where the victim was found."

I looked at the face in the body bag.

_He was Indian._ I looked over the forensics division whom I worked with Mr. Kaguro in the past. Arjun Palik. He was the person I was supposed to meet.

I couldn't tell Katagi that he was waiting for me or we'd both lose our cover.

"So to recap: You, Neyu Himura, and you, Guma Nomri, were meeting for extra tutoring. You, Mal Temric, had some work to complete which required you to use the PC lounge. Are those right presumptions?"

"Yes Inspector," Guma replied. "There was only one time I left the PC Lounge and that was for five minutes at most."

"I didn't notice anything around me since I was working," Temric told.

"I was sitting the whole time and didn't notice anyone suspicious," Neyu related.

"Sir we found this in his shoe" one of the forensics people spoke. It was a tack with blood stains on its tip.

"We found traces of a neurotoxin."


	32. FIB's Continuation

"Welcome back! Its been a week since the PAL fanatics ruined our last FIB round. This time we've taken extra precaution to ..."

I, Nora Kazumoto, sat in what looked like an empty baseball stadium in the late Thursday morning haze.

"...In just four hours two teams will take their stand against one another with a few twists to the game. You will each choose one player every inning- to see who will commit an Error on field in five innings. Strike outs allow one team to resurrect one person on their team whose player committed an Error on field."

A second FIB agent spoke now," As for how you win: You have twenty five people on the team. Each player is worth two points. Winning the game gives you ten points. The team with the most points wins."

The first gave another twist, "Players on different teams can trade players from one team to the the other... for a price of course. You can own up to two people at a time"

"That makes things easier for us. Our goal here is not to have the most money when we get out of this. We just have to survive," Ken spoke quietly.

"I see. So we can check out the players and choose one extra person to follow. Its full proof. There's no way we should loose two players to a error."

"That's childish thinking Nora. Even with two people in five innings errors can be statistically calculated. "

"Even the best averaged players can make errors up to 20 percent of the time."

"The first inning will be for practice and then the fight will start after that. Players are assigned randomly so no point for the practice to loose your cool."

We were all handed an envelope with our names on them. I looked around and saw a few long faces. I opened the card envelop and took out the card inside.

_We were betting on minor league players!_

Some looked like they were still in high-school.

I peeked into the others' cards to see their error statistics. For some the percentage was .60. There weren't many happy looking people around us.

…

Our player was Boro Higano, the Pitcher for the wikis. He had fairly good statistics. "

We lucked out on this one" Ken informed me, Nora Kazumoto.

"Let me say this once the only reason is that I want to save everyone everyone from the FIB. And I plan on doing it without taking advantage of anybody."

"Look here. The only reason why I decided to help was because you remind me of my sister. You see we lived together without our parents. We were heavily in debt and she was tricked by some conman saying how we could consolidate our debt. She drove herself into madness. When she asked for compensation the company refused her plea."

"Even if you're not here, I want to continue to try and beat this underground scheme of the FIB group."

"Let's just make it through this round and then see if your outlook changes."

After that dialogue the group went over to that balcony to watch the players


	33. Chronan and Wright Weigh in

That Thursday morning, as I Edward Chronan, was watching the local news, the segment came up about the hotel murder.

"The student suspect remains at large..."

I still didn't believe that it was a straight forward case. How does a student come across a neurotoxin and what motivated him.

"In other news, the mass jailbreak has police and JSDF stumped as to the location of almost two hundred recent inmates."

This was a another problem. How could that many prisoners be missing. The Narabhima followers had effectively out maneuvered the JSDF.

...

I, Wright Yasogami, was furious at my inability to cope with the situation. Almost a fourth of the inmates had escaped on my watch.

"Double hawk, contact HQ to gather up the usual crew."

"Yes sir."

We had to make a decisive action to quell the city's unrest.


	34. Eye on the Underworld

I believe I had enough manpower now to stand up against part of my father's conglomerate, mainly that of my elder step-sister Magnoria Debriten. I had the second objective to get information out of her regarding the truth behind mother's death.

I had gathered, with the help of Kushal, the inmates from the prison break. To him now, "I expect you have doubts as to whether I can control all these people."

"I'm not one to make any baseless assumptions."

"Then watch."

I went to the foreground and used my emperor's eye, "I order you to follow my commands until the downfall of Charles Debritten."

"Yes! We understand," came the unanimous reply from the crowd.

Kushal looked skeptical and wide-eyed.

"I believe you must have guessed at it, seeing how you seem to be keen in observing others. I, more or less, hypnotized them using a technique I learned from a sorceress or rather it was given to me. No need to over analyze it past that. And, you're not getting any further clues as how I did it. Take it at face value or leave it aside for some further contemplation."

"I don't take things at face value lightly."

"Keep it that way, you'll survive longer."


	35. Reappearance

"Seeing that the recapture of the criminals is not under our sections priorities, I want to push a further investigation into the Narabhima supporters." I, Wright Yasogami, dictated my intention.

Buzz!

"Yes, double hawk."

"We have an Akamatsu sighting."

"Send us the location."


	36. Another Akamatsu Begins

"We have breaking news! There has been verification that Akamatsu has another victim taken hostage. Wait... Now he is projecting the inside of the office where he has barricaded himself."

"People of Las Heika City, here you have Herbie Magano, one of the ministry of finance's deputy chair. Now you may ask: what does he have to do with the 200 Trillion yen deficit our country is facing. Well, here folks. What you see here in print is the budget for public securities. In its thick binding, we have earmarks. An earmark is an item that is inserted into a bill to direct funds to a specific project or recipient without any public hearing or review. One of the problems is that there is no transparency or accountability in the system. These are for pet projects for his buddies. "

"Those projects are important for the public good. They spur the economy."

"For this, let's have a little show and tell, Now show us how we benefit from each of these three projects and who has to bear the burden."

Silence pervaded the building.

"The first one is the orbital elevator initiative. Now's not the time for focusing on heavenly pipe dreams that take public taxes away from those who are hurting on the ground."

"We have to stay ahead of the world curve in technology to continue being a world force. We have a broad outlook." Was Magano's reply.

"That's not good enough."

"Next pet project is..."


	37. The Meeting Point

"We're running out of time. He's on the second project and we're assuming that he's going to end with the third one by Akamatsuing the guy," I, Wright Yasogami, shouted into my headset while the other JACL made it to the office."

I was on a helicopter seeing if I could get a first person view of Akamatsu from outside. I did. He was adorned in the same outfit and had the same physique as the recovered bodies.

"Quick, I need him before his mask busts."

The tactical team shot down the door but the moment has already passed.

"He must have had help. Search the premiss for any evidence of how he managed to infiltrate and have access to the building."

To double hawk, " See if anything suspicious happened in the area from the satellite feed and keep an eye for this guy."

I send him the electronic picture of the guy. "It's the person who we have a DNA match with."

"Right," was his response from over the head set.

There's no way we can detain all of the ministry so I waited for a response from double hawk.

"That can't be! We have the guy at two places art once and at one of them he waves at the areal. Quick he's outside in a van now.

"We got trouble. He's locked down the building," Pai Pasoda informed us over the intercom. "You have to follow him yourself in the heli."

"Double hawk, send me the coordinates ." I shouted with my heart pounding.

_I have a chance to contact this guy._

"He's headed towards the river." I said to the pilot after the deed came to my laptop.

_Wait! No!_

The van drove into the river and shortly cane the splash of the car exploding.

" Bring me to the bank. I'm going in to look for the body," I dove in the bank and swam to the wreckage.

_No body._

He must have swam nearby. I saw a sewage entrance on the opposite end. I took the chance.

Entering the opening, I called out, "I want to talk with you. If you turn yourself in things will be easier."

"That so Mr. JACL."


	38. Interaction with a Demon

"That so Mr. JACL"

_He's trying to intimidate me._

"Look here, I'm not trying to stop you. I want to take out the corruption as much as you. The way you're going about it is way too flamboyant."

"And you have a better way, do tell."

"I can't do that ... right away anyway."

"I t looks like this relationship can't be built around trust."

"Build it on something more satisfying for the both of us: a mutual goal and a place at the defining moment that history turns in itself."

"You must have some big scheme worked out. Its a grade-schooler's dream."

"I already have the method I need manpower to take this thing global."

"Its true that the convolution that we see here isn't all because of our system."

"We both have our secrets. Eventually , I hope we can be on equal standing."

"I'll entertain the notion, now all's that needed is an example of your trump."

"I can guarantee the lives of five gross violators of state and public trust at noon tomorrow.."

"Give me some names and I'll keep tabs on them."

"Cadlad Nion, Kelaido Redwinters, Mives Vasli, Brutal Jacobi, and Mangyo Hine. Contact me at this line with this transmitter when you are sufficiently satisfied."

"You seem confident in your ability Mr JACL. Alright I'll give this venture a chance. Having someone on the inside is always a plus."

"Remember , this is for the corrections of all the injustices our country and even beyond that have transpired."

"I got you."

_He's biting the bait! Soon I can make this world into its next stage._I thought this as I made my way back to the helicopter.

"Relay to double hawk, " I spoke through the terminal. "I've lost track of the offender. Hack in to the ministry's defense net and free the rest our crew."

"Affirmed."


	39. Case of Paradise

_There hasn't been a lead into the Dark Syndicate for a while now._

I Edward Chronon thought this while having breakfast with the Kaguro Family as usual on Friday morning.

_Ring!_

We heard the ringer of the main door. Mr. Kaguro wiped his face and straightened his tie. He left us to go downstairs to see who was there.

A little later, since we had time, Renae and I went to see who the visitor was.

Across the table from Mr. Kaguro, there was a woman wearing a lavender dress and hat.

Renae spoke, interrupting them, "I'll bring some tea for you." She went into the kitchen.

The lavender hat lady cleared her throat,"I believe a detective as esteemed as yourself could handle it, right?"

"Hahha! Yes, I suppose I could handle it Ms. Hikiko."

"You see, its not a theft in a physical sense. That's the troubling part. They used my online persona to gain access to my clients' accounts through a social networking site. They have been notified to change their settings and passwords. However, for a few of them, they lost access to their financial data. They run the risk of losing all they had saved."

"That's not something that I can do about unless there's a physical aspect to your case. It's not something I specialize in doing. It makes it difficult if you've got your phone back."

"Well, I have a hunch that its someone I work with. Our team in the company I work for had a social with another group. That was the day before I realized that my phone was gone . After that, my online persona has not been under my control. I didn't erase the service because It meant cutting off the only link we have."

"That's a mighty big risk you have taken," I started. "It may start a chain reaction of further malicious data mining."

"I hadn't thought of it that way," was her response.

"Don't you have to go to school now," coughed Mr. Kaguro.

_He doesn't like being shown up as usual._

"So tell me the site's name and exactly what it does."

"Its name is: Paradise Called The West. People can pull out information about other users through its search engine. It acts like a central hub to other sites which specialize in their own applications."

"The information about the targeted accounts was accessible through your particular administrator account then."

"Yes. Their real identities are able to be seen and..."

_Buzz!_

"Hold on while I take this."

Mr. Kaguro gestured that it was fine and then leaned back slightly in his chair.

"What, yes... it does...That's terrible... I've consulted someone to look into this. We're in the middle of the discussion right now."

"Mr. Kaguro, that call notified me of a complication that has arisen. There have been reports that of assaults and thefts happening by people using the online aliases that have been hacked into. The caught assailants had no identification on them save the password to a Paradise account. They're causing trouble for my clients by impersonating them."

_It was a diversion. Who ever was behind this was after something and needed a screen to work behind._

...

Walking home from school, "Hey, Edward, you know how popular those online networking sites are. I hadn't realized how widespread Paradise was ," Renae told me. " Even I have one that though I rarely use it."

Yeah, even kids in my grade have online personas." I could have meant both the grade I pretended to be in and Renae's.

"I wonder if Sean has one too."

_Honestly, I could have gotten one right away if it let me ease Renae's worries about me. She could have talked to me as Sean. Only, it would have put her in danger. It would also have compromised my identity since the Dark Syndicate would know I was alive art the click of a button._

"I don't think Sean has the time to keep up with online fads with his mind working constantly on that important case he was on concerned about."

"Yeah... that must be it."

We were walking up the stairs to the detective agency and when we reached the landing we ran into Inspector Katagi exiting the office.

"Ah, Hello kids. Hope you have a good day." He said briefly.

We entered the room and Mr. Kaguro informed us about what happened since Inspector Katagi had dropped by, "I called Katagi about that women that was here this morning ."

_He has a soft spot for pretty women._

"I've got a lead you see."

_Impressive old man._

"There's been a string of assaults and thefts using aliases that had the same names as the personas that have been stolen from that online networking site."

"So they've caught the suspects it look like."

"Trouble the part is that they were given those personas to use through anonymous emails."

_Someone well connected and scrupulous about method is behind this. This might be something the Dark Syndicate is behind!_


	40. Paradise Dismissed

I, Wright Yasogami, had satisfied the conditions for the deal with Akumatsu. It was too early for the deaths to be made public assuming Akamatsu didn't have informants in the penitentiary system. The transmitter was carefully stowed away in my safe to be used once the news gets out. Into the open.

_Buzz!_

I checked my phone. It was double hawk.

"Report"

"There's been an alert being called. A certain social networking site has connections with a string of thefts and assaults."

"That's not under our directives."

"The thing is its reached the government's ears when their families lost their online aliases to the perpetrators of the fore-mentioned thefts."

"Heh, The government insiders don't act this fast unless it hurts them directly."

"This particularly affected the talks that were in Congress about diverting funds from a cross-nation project to an internet task force expansion."

"If I remember clearly, that was a big deal between Hisane Tijo and the Russian company headed by the famed scientist Prebo Malachenko."

"Minister Tijo, huh..."


	41. Crisis in Paradise

"Somehow, unidentified by the police, three further strokes have been added to the bizarre string of deaths..."

_Click._

I, Luke LaRouge, turned off the evening news from the display in my dorm room.

_This weekend was going to be big._

There was a plan being carried out. We were to locate Magnoria's shipment of silicon which was used in her branch of father's conglomerate. It would derail the operations for the latest cyberspace products which was used by the government for their network security systems. I would then sell it overseas on the black market to their competitors . They would supply me with the tech needed to disrupt the power grid that fed into one of father's main plants...

I was interrupted by a knock on my door. I got up , walked over, and opened it.

"We've got trouble." It was Maruki. "Some of the students lapsed into coma. Go to the Student Council building as soon as you can."

_I didn't need this distraction now._

Nonetheless, I hurried to find out what was happening and whether Yunnaly was safe.


	42. Getting the Help of The Scientist

We've got reports coming in from across the city. Paradise users have been found unconscious..."

Renae and I looked at each other.

This is definitely something that could be linked to the people behind the identity thefts. This may be retaliation or part of their plan to cripple the working of this city.

"Hey, Renae," I was delve into the fray, " I need to use your Paradise ID."

"Its too dangerous. I ... know that you're interested in the case but you have to watch out for yourself. You won't be any help if you're unconscious."

"Uh, its the scientist." I faked the call. "You need me to come over there right now. Yeah, I'll be on my way!"

I was going to set up a dummy account using his PC.

"Wait Edward..."

_Sorry Renae, I keep worrying you. I'll make it up to you once I find the dark syndicate and expose them. This is a chance to get closer._

...

On my way to my house where the scientist was, I called the scientist to let him know I'd be there.

"Hi Sean is it. I was just having dinner if you want to join me."

"I already ate, so don't worry about waiting for me to eat. I need to use your PC to do some research. I'm on my way right now."

"Alright. That reminds me I found and helped out someone today. You may know her since she goes to the same elementary school you do."

"That's great scientist , but we have bigger problems. I'll tell you when we get there. Bye."

I was going quickly between traffic with my scooter.


	43. Sister

Where's Yunnaly!" I panted as I , Luke LaRouge, barged into the rear of the Student Council building where Yunnaly was being housed along with her attendant. She was a family connection who knew our true identities.

_There's people here. Has there been a move against me by father? I've taken so much care to remain low key. I won't forgive them if they used Yunnaly against me._

"Tell me," I used my emperor's eye on the nearest male student, "was there a girl in a wheelchair in this house."

"I haven't seen anyone like that."

_Damn!_

I rushed to the one place where I could find the person who would have the answer to my apprehensions. I made my way to the main Student council loft where the source of this commotion must be. I had to hear from the class president.

"Susan," I huffed at her. I was at my limit with all the running.

"Alright, " she began, "we've got everyone together. We'll need everyone to follow my orders if this is going to work out."

"Susan, where's..." I was cut short.

"Your sister's been in this room since the first reports came in to us. We needed to use the rooms as an extended sickbay."

I looked around to see her.

"Brother," I heard her voice from over the heads of the other council members. "I'm okay, you don't have to worry."

_Relief._

"Besides, according to my hunch, you'd have to be able to see it in order to be affected."

"What do you have in mind?" one of the guys who was always with Susan asked.

"Well it must be obvious!" We were waiting for her to explain. "Its the work of a secret organization with supernatural powers... Of course that isn't it." A few council shuffled nervously. "They most likely spent too much time on their computers and were affected by the excess radiation or had seizures because of flashing lights on their screens."

"You might not be far off from the truth. We have a connection between the students who lapsed," Megan began. "They, uh, were all on the same site where they were found: Paradise Called the West."


	44. Cain Online

I, Edward Chronan, arrived at my house and rang the doorbell. The scientist's footsteps could be heard coming closer through our hallway. The door opened.

He whispered to me, "I'll keep calling you Edward for now since we have a guest." Then in a larger voice,

"Ah, Edward, so you have something urgent to do using the personal computer here."

"Yeah, I need to find the connection between the social network , Paradise Called the West, and a string of people going unconscious. There was a developer of that site that called on Mr. Kaguro to investigate who stole their online personas. There might be a connection between the two events."

"That's terrible," the scientist spoke. "I've heard of people having seizures due to flashing lights and patterns, but nothing as severe as losing consciousness."

"It might be hypnosis," came a girl's voice as we entered the living room. She was definitely the age of the classmates in my elementary school. She brushed back her auburn colored hair as she went on, "Its possible for a combination of audio and visual stimuli to cause a reaction in the brain's neural network which would render them asleep. If there was some drug used to heighten the effects then coma would not be impossible."

_There was something off about her. She sounded like someone more mature._

"That could be it, Edward," the scientist acknowledged her.

"Yeah, that makes sense," I answered them. "I need to do some research before I make any assertions."

"Go ahead, Edward," The scientist took me to his makeshift lab in our basement. A few monitors were set up. "Use this one to connect to the internet."

I was searching through hacker message boards for anything that connected to Paradise:

"GATHER is soo addicting and fun."

"I found a thousand dollars after going through one of their missions."

"Cain is gonna take it all since she's got the most points."

"I got some, hehhe unreal, stuff the other day. Whoever's running this has some good shit."

"I got bested by Cain again on one of the hunts. Damn, she's too good."

"They say if you run into Cain you can be sure that the hunt is over."

"Cain knows EVERYTHING. She's tried EVERYTHING."

_There's a lot about this Cain person. I need to find out who this is and find out how she hasn't been affected by the Paradise leak._


	45. Trusted Correspondence

_I, Tasuke Nijiwara, otherwise known to the JACL subunit as Double-hawk, reported to the field agent the information I got from the JSDF update feeds from all of Las Heika City's precincts. I had developed a program algorithm which highlighted key phrases within the feeds and group them together within a window. Large scale trends have larger windows. _

I was called to help my father, whose code last name was Matagi, on a case while I was in middle school. I decoded a CD with sensitive information in an international conflict. An informant had listed the names from a massive pyramid scheme. They were financing an overseas mercenary group that targeted foreign diplomats in the territories that employed them. The group was unraveled through the disclosure of their top official's emails..

From then on, I've earned a certain respect from the unit and have taken a post there.

Only problem I have now with the case is that there's no convergence in the source. Whoever is behind this took a lot of caution hiding their influence. The attacks stem from somewhere in the company but the trail ends there. There are myriads of other people who don't have any connection to each other who have had their accounts hacked in from the prior circle.

I closed my laptop. After almost a full day of data mining I needed a break. I went downstairs to see what my sis there was up working on.

She was a senior in high school now . I found her in front of a TV texting on her phone.

"You hear anything from Touma," I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm talking to him right now."

She was going out with my best friend Touma Tijo, the grand son of Prime Minister Tijo.

"Let me get that. I want to tell him something."

The other part of being my best friend is that he's the only one who knows who I work for. We've had correspondence with his grandfather as well. He also went undercover for me in the pyramid scheme situation.

I text-ed him: Get on ID messenger later tonight.

We developed a heavily encoded system that allowed for more sensitive talks, and I needed his advice on the matter at hand.


	46. Gambling Halfway

"Kushal, have the diversions team get into place. I'll meet up with the strike team in fifteen. Do you have a visual on the transport caravan?" I, Luke LaRouge, made this call while on my way to the designated rendezvous point where I had my men stationed. I got to this point after I had made an excuse to leave the student council meeting under the pretense of finding doctors to look after those who lapsed in coma. I'd send some proxies from a hospital I had some family acquaintances with. They should be enough to handle the situation.

"We're positioned at way-point five and we have our scouting division maintaining visual. They should be arriving at our planned destination in an hour's time." Kushal spoke over the intercom. "The caravan has five armored trucks and two escorts each. This doesn't exactly seem important enough to warrant such security."

"Good point, " I started, "however that doesn't change the operation. Our main objective is acquiring the shipment of silicon wafers."

"You've nothing to gain if we screw this up. You know that. You also know that my observations and conjectures carry some weight."

"I'm confident and competent enough to see that this plan works. If you have better tactics tell me."

" We see how the caravans react to a smoke screen. But instead we get a second team to divert them a second time to thin out their numbers. Their reactions would tell us if they had something that they prioritize within the shipment. If so we move the strike team to go after this truck."

" You're saying this would mean that the real shipment of silicon would go through."

"Even so, this may be a bigger dent into their operations than the silicon. There's no way you could pursue two of the cars-trucks and you're key to making this work. You have to make the decision to stick to gnawing away slowly at their infrastructure or take the gamble and go for the choice that gets you the leverage you need to topple their system."

"I don't gamble. I make informed decisions. If I don't have control over the situation I'd make it so the requirements of success are in place. Hold on a minute while I make the preparations" I looked at the gps and formulated a route that would allow me to meet up with two of their vans in succession. I send a text to a subdivision gang leader to get his men to slow down the third. "I'm sending you the routes you're going to have to travel for this to work. I send another team for you. Coordinate with them to stall the third truck until I get through the first two."

"I'm glad you're seeing things from a larger perspective." Kushal relayed. "You've the collected decisiveness needed to lead this group to the cause's culmination."

_The possibility of a bigger payoff may be exactly what I need to go to the next stage and disassemble father's hold on this country. _


	47. Counter and Revelation

We, the special investigation section, were on a voice conference in a large room with the department heads.

"This is a specialist we've brought from overseas who has solved many that Scotland Yard, FBI and Interpol could not figure out by themselves. He agreed to hear our situation and has some initial remarks about what is happening."

Katagi primed the group.

A buzz signaled that the call was ready. Katagi nodded and gave the impression that we were ready.

"Good evening everyone. I am Rawliet. Even though the incident has been limited to your country it is interesting because of the facts I've ascertained. First, there is the nature of the offender. His techniques have been requiring expertise in various fields in order to get through security. Second, he has been wrapping up the forced consent from politicians across the government with the penalty. His motives are publicly . His raison d'tere infringes on the freedom of the elected officials. He must be stopped regardless." There was a pause.

He continued with that artificial female voice.

"I propose we make a long term plan to deal with this. It needs to be under my direction for the duration of this investigation."

There was a slamming of fists on the table.

"We cannot give the total authority to someone who won't meet us in person."

"I tell you that even though it's a precaution with the possibility that my image would get known. I want to do this carefully."

"Also we cannot afford a long term plan. This group must be stopped as soon as we get a lead."

"He may seem like a typical contra or revolutionary but he must be human and he is immaculate with his execution of his preparations. We need to understand his network first. We could potentially have ourselves in a global quandary if we don't take precaution. Our government has ties worldwide. So it won't be long until overseas corruption becomes a target for Akamatsu."

"He seems to think this guy is a bigger problem than we thought. You really think that he would cause a global fiasco when he involves the multinationals." Hatsuda commented to me.

"What is certain is that there is more we don't understand and if we don't act properly things would get out of hand."

…

The news must have gotten to him by now. I felt it was time that I contacted Akamatsu. I opened the safe where the transmitter I kept designated for Akamatsu was. Carrie wouldn't find it odd that I wasn't at home when she got back from her fieldwork. She's usually late as it is. I'd need to go somewhere private to make this secure. I didn't use a land transmitter that could be hacked into easily. I booked a private room at a remote conference hall in a building on the outskirt of the time.

"Ah so its Mr. JSDF. I did my groundwork and there was nothing connecting you to make those inmates fall. I may go against my better intuition and believe your supernatural powers. I personally put my trust in science. That's not to say I'm closed to paradigm shifts. Now explain clearly how you're planning to have the history fold in on itself as you've advertised to me last we met."

"Before we get to my end, I want to get an idea of how deep your group has infiltrated the government system. For you to get through Debriten's security requires much intricate organization. Next is the obvious immortality that keeps your operation going."

"No, you got it wrong there. Each time I akamatsu, it's me who gives the ultimate sacrifice of my life. I feel it every time. I have a scientific explanation."

_This might be something that connects him to someone like Rook._

He continued, "We are all neurally connected through the mask and by we I mean a number of my clones. I have the technology to support me though I won't disclose the exact specifications."

_This has gotten more interesting than I imagined._

"Tell me," I began, "just how many politicians on which you have directives imposed."

"Well there's a blanket imposed on all of Japan. I have it that in general that anyone who uses public funds to put burden on the public without benefiting them needs to reform their protocols. "

"You realize that our problem isn't local to even Japan. Multinationals have bribed officers across the board. You're going to make a small dent in the structure of the underlying deterioration that is the infrastructure of this countr_y_."

"I've heard your take on my modus operandum. I want to hear your raison d'être."

"I fight the injustices that keep people from feeling safe on the streets. I want them to be constantly under the assumption that any wrongdoing they do will not go unseen. That's not what I want to get from you however. I don't want to go public with my operation and have my name marred by going against people who haven't done something heinous such as murdering, stealing, or attacking the innocent."

I had something that I planned to draw him to my side.

"What I'm getting at is that I want a taskforce of your people serving as eyes for me. For you I offer something equally valuable such as information on foreigners who have dealings with our country. These are people who bought out our politicians to ensure their terms of trade favor more imports of their products. In particular, the financial sector has been flooded with riskier securities. Politicians promote these securities as sound investments to the public. This investment is directed from infrastructure and education in our state. The problem is that lower level politicians who haven't been bribed use public funds unknowingly funneling the public funds into a void where it isn't seen again."

"I see your point. Even my people have their limitations. I'd work with you from what i've seen is your sense of justice. Let me discuss it with the organization and I'll make contact with you in person."

_He's taken it. What I really want is his cloning technique so that I could have more people with my sense of justice and the same objective to control the continuation of history indefinitely._


	48. Late Innings

_Crack! _

I, Ken Yamato, heard sound of a wooden bat making a solid connection with the 150 kph ball thrown over the inside corner of the home plate. The stadium lights illuminated the stadium since it was getting darker.

Nora and I had made little adjustments to our tactics since the practice match yesterday. The situation now was that it was the top of the fourth inning of the true match, meaning that we had to win in two innings with us trailing them by seven in the score. There was one run batted in with the last pitch. Thankfully, we only needed one more out to end the half. We had used up all of the bench warmers so any further errors would leave us shorthanded on the field. As things were going, our team had 18 points and our opponents had 24 points. Another issue that surprised us and compounded the problem was that someone on the other team had bought out about half of our bench. Some of the players on our team were enticed by a cash payment that was decent enough to let them lower the net debt they owed to the company a good chunk.

_We need to win this match or we'll be sucked into FIB without any leverage. Now... there was an added adversary, the other team's manipulator._

…

_If I were Cain, the most prestige would be to follow this quest. _I, Edward Chronan, thought this while in the Scientist's Mini. For some reason, the auburn haired girl decided to follow us. I heard from the professor that she was alone in the street in front of the house. When he asked if she was friends with me from school, she affirmed. So, he let her stay in the house.

"You see, I'm good with puzzles. I decided that I'll help you two."

"It's past ten you know," I was against her accompanying us.

"Well, I... my sister is coming home late tonight. I'll feel safer with you. I think you could understand me..." and she added in a smaller voice, "and my situation."

I didn't have time to worry about her since the quest was due to expire at midnight. At some of the places the riddles described, we found QR codes. We used the professor's smartphone to process them. They led to websites that gave out hints to the next point. At some points, where the scientist and I were stumped, the auburn hair was useful particular with the medical terms. The process was eating up time and we hadn't run into Cain yet.

_The red light on the Scientist's smart phone was blinking. _

The auburn hair noticed it and spoke, "We need to save the power for reading the QR codes. That means any research we need to do would have to be at a net cafe we find on our way."

"It isn't like we have a choice at this point. There's only an hour left to midnight." I admitted.

"Ah I see signs for one," The scientist drove into a parking spot and put a few coins in the meter. We walked briskly following the signs around the corner. The place we were led to looked open.

"We want the high-speed access option," I told the scientist.

The scientist promptly paid for the terminal's code. Auburn hair and I went to find an open room, but just as we were passing the first room, a middle school girl wearing her hair to oneside fastened by a white clip slammed the door open and ran out. I went and looked at her screen which hadn't been logged off. There was a forum that read: Shillings. It would be inappropriate to see what else the girl was reading so I stopped there.

I went to log out and saw the following: 'Does USER NAME: CAIN want to sign out?' I ran after white clasp with auburn hair chasing us and the Scientist calling our names, bewildered by the sudden development.


	49. Tail End

I, Jim Togaki, stood across the baseball stadium where Nora had entered with a decent sized group this afternoon. I didn't see anyone lead them in the structure.

I noticed that the shops along the side facing the street were all shut down. I had some information from a local contact who wore sunglasses as his trademark regardless of how shabby he was clothed. He had been working in the area as a temporary hire, but could never find steady work. He said some company had bought out the shops or ran the owners out of town. Strange thing was that these people who owned the shops were tied to a fairly established gang.

It was dark and I had some Sour Brittles in my mouth standing in a dimly lit alleyway. It would be obvious being the only person on the street that I was observing the FIB group activity.

_Thud! I felt something hit me in the thigh._

I yelled internally clenching my teeth not to make a sound and fell on the littered pavement. I heard a door open followed by footsteps.

"You trying to dig up something on us, huh?" The big one said.

"No no no no no, I was just taking a stroll on this fine Friday night."

"I don't think he's with any brass. Just look at his dead-fish eyes," the smaller whispered.

"Yeah, Lodge. He must be on Obtain."

The two walked back into where they had entered the ally. I hobbled to put some distance between us. I didn't need to cause any trouble with people unrelated to the FIB group.

While trying to be as inconspicuous as I stumbled along the road, a convoy of armored vehicles sped by me. I don't remember Debriten's conglomerate being this flagrant, but then again he did have everyone in his pockets and this place was deserted too. So, it wouldn't make a scene.

I called my two assistants to bring me my scooter.

Hagura and Unremarkable Glasses boy showed up in about ten minutes after the convoy's sighting. I told them to take the nearest subway back to our agency. I'd want to keep tabs on Nora but it's too dangerous for the two part-timers to handle, and there could be some lead if I followed the


	50. Miuka's Introduction

I, Miuka Kuroki, stood atop a bridge looking at the convoy of Debritten's armored trucks being diverted to different routes. The success of their delivery would cause a spiral of events that would lead to disaster. I've only scratched the surface of what's happening in this time. Even for Koyuun the extent that I knew about this present is limited. A certain event in the following Golden Week would change the world for the worst. Society had degraded into a constant quest for powerful sorcery based weaponry. I was brought up as a pawn to be used in our region's military.

I have the ability to see the color of people's inner thoughts. I've tried trained so I could tell how people would react in the financial world knowing how optimistic or pessimistic people are give me information on how they would react in their trades. By looking at satellite maps of certain areas one color could dominate so if I focus on prime financial territory I could guess seventy-seven percent accuracy on fluctuations. It is difficult however since most people have been discouraged by the string of criminal activity. Patches of optimism show up rarely in this time in these financial districts.

I wasn't prepared to have other people after the same cargo.

_These people must have failed their objective. If I was any other person, I would use their help and work with them, but I'm confident in my own skills._

After this thought, I grappled down the bridge to the road.


	51. Evolution of Truth

We, the JACL JSDF subunit, were dispatched via sea-boat to support the diverted Magnoria Electronics convoy. It was initially taken as a gang dispute related to the Narabhima prison break. However, Apparently a renegade group calling themselves the Gray-guards were after the same target. Their motive was to gain the advanced technology of the Debritton Conglomerate and strengthen a rival conglomerate in Mainland Lesiah Which was the northern continent separating us was the Epsific Ocean. They wanted to gain autonomy from the pressure Debritton exerted in their region. Apparently a prototype for a top secret project was being ferried on the convoy. We even had permission to destroy the cargo before it fell into enemy's hands.

I, Sousuke Ahihoo, ran through the details of the current state of my affairs. My elder brother, Itochi, seemed like he wasn't nervous like usual or as some other members of the JACL. Itochi spoke now," our intelligence requires we identify where and what the target is."

Pai Pasoda Nodded approval. "check if double-Hawk has satellite feed."

"Double Hawk tells me that There seems to be some outside interference or a smoke screen preventing visuals," Danzo Hoji relayed. "There are multiple heat decoys deployed."

"We don't know which are friend or foe so take caution." Zach Shoemaker advised.

Our transport took us under the bridge where we stealthily fired our grappling hooks to the truss.

I pulled myself up to the road level after my elder brother and Zach made their way there. I heard a noise of a truck approaching the rail where I made my way along. For some reason, I could see something along the lines of the "truths" and intention of the driver through the fog. I did a dodge roll out of the way.

_My truth's eyes weren't used for this purpose before. If so, my brother must be either unaware or aware and not giving out the information. I'd have to ask him after this mission was over._


	52. Itochi vs Miuka

Due to the fog and heat decoys, most of my team's vision would be unreliable. I was not hampered because my Truth's Eyes were able both able to evict a truth from a person as well as see their action's truth s before they occur. This aids in my physical abilities during combat. I made my way effortlessly and stealthily through towards the large Magnoria transport vehicle.

_Somebody is approaching the vehicle from the side of my vision._

I could hear him shout now, "Hey I'm here to help you!"

_He wasn't part of the convoy. It was probably a trick to let up their guard._

I made haste to ascertain the situation now.

I ran toward him ready to knock him to the ground. His truth was a solid color but I could see through it. Without having a particular form, his movements were almost matching mine. His form is quickly adapting and changing to my ground combat holds and jiujitsu techniques. His brawling wouldn't keep up to the fusion of my truth's eyes and my technique and I pin him down giving me a clear look at his tired and sunken eyes.

"Tell me why you're here."

In an automatic droning tone tired-eyes spoke, "I'm a concerned citizen confident in my fighting abilities trying to help those convoys in danger."

He was here by chance seems like so I snapped him out of the daze, "Keep out of this, you're not required."

I looked for other targets nearing the shipment truck.

Suddenly, I was lying on the ground. I quickly barrel-rolled and got out of the way of some projectiles being thrown at me through the fog. A stun grenade here would be impractical due to the fog's thickness. I took out a survival knife out and braced myself. I activated my truth's eyes to take full advantage of their power to see people's intentions. Like normal people, her truth should shine brighter. I should be able to take her down now.

I felt someone kick my feet from behind. I rolled forward and turned around to see my attacker.

_This is unprecedented. _

My eyes didn't catch the attacker's presence, and this person was skillful enough with his martial arts to sneak up on me. The best I could do in this situation was to rely on my own training and guard against this anomaly.

I didn't have much time to react before I had to duck out of the way of another projectile. It grazed my cheek. I ducked right into the attacker who held on to me with a knife at my throat.


	53. Miuka's Victory

I, Miuka Kuroki, held a knife to an aura-less individual. It all hinged on the element of surprise this time. He was clearly a skilled member of a special ops team.

_He must have something occult about him._

"You're exceptionally skilled, but if you really want to save this city you'd join my side," I told him. I pressed the knife just enough to draw a trickle of blood from his neck. He didn't say anything so I added, "Debritten plans to ensnare the world in a perpetual war. He's going to try and collect as many of the occult forces such as yourself and then turn his conglomerate into a war machine with him as the controller."

"You have no basis to say that. Why should I believe you?"

"You have no reason to do so. However, do some research on what's really going on there if you care about this country."

"It's normal for people that big to have dirt on them, but he's a citizen nonetheless…" He didn't finish since I quickly knocked him out with a strike to a pressure point.

Just then, I saw a bright, almost menacing aura run towards the nearest truck to me. Shortly, a dozen or so people followed.

Over the encrypted telecom device, I spoke to all of the Gray Guard, "I have confirmation of JSDF special Ops involvement. The third truck has rogue units approaching it. I will try and secure it while you send backup to my coordinates."

I focused on the bright aura and made my approach quickly. He would pose the most problem here as was typical of people with bright auras. The question was if he was willing to cooperate, unlike the special Ops unit.

I arrived at the truck before him. I climbed atop it. He saw me and took aim at me with a hand-gun.

"You aren't in a civilian uniform. What group are you with?"

"I'm currently working with a group called the Gray Guards. They should be in possession of the main cargo by now, but don't worry. Your attempt was destined to failure as it was."


	54. Musical Ending

"You're Cain!" I, Edward Chronan, yelled as the girl with the white hair clasp ran from the Net Café.

"Yes, that's right," Cain started softly. "I see I was careless this time."

"I didn't expect her to be so reserved after what people wrote about her online," the scientist said to auburn hair and me.

Auburn hair responded in a matter-of-fact way, "it's typical for people to be like that under the veil of anonymity."

"So, don't take it the wrong way, but I have to figure this last puzzle in twenty minutes."

"Let us help you then, we don't want the object of your search. We just wanted information on Paradise Called the West. We think you'd know best of what's going on with ."

"So, you say you don't want the prize. Even so, you think you kids could figure it faster than me. So, don't take it the wrong way: I doubt it," was Cain's rejection.

"Don't underestimate us since we made it this far in the quest," I rebutted

"That's right. You did with the help of that old man there."

"I didn't do much of the puzzle work other than use my phone to look up things, Miss Cain," the Scientist supported me.

"Tell me what you think then." I took the paper from Cain.

"It reads: The drummer from South Asia sat on the temple of modern rulers, while he wants to play music in the midst of the fountain of youth."

"The object is a "tabla," but I don't know what he means by the temple," Auburn spoke out.

"We're in a part of the city where there's no government offices. So the modern rulers can't be our politicians," the scientist noted.

"You're missing the connection between temple and rulers," I had it figured out. "It's a temple as in surface to make sacrifices to the institutes that run the country: banks. I'm betting that there's a tabla in some corner of the steps leading to Heika City Bank. Then the fountain of youth is in the park across the road."

"So, I see you're intelligent for an elementary school kid," Cain responded nonchalantly.

"I read it somewhere in the magazines that my parents subscribe," I quickly dodged the issue.

"That would be the case it seems," Cain said obviously unconvinced.

The group ran a couple of blocks to the financial avenue. After they reached the Heika city's main bank, they walked to the marble foundation of the bank and searched around for the tabla. Auburn hair was the first to spot it. It was behind a statue of an angelic form. This was because it was supposed to symbolize the free markets as was written below the statue. I don't know about how true this was about the financial system, but there were more important things to think about at the moment.

"Okay," the scientist began. "Now, we've to figure out where to put the tabla."

The group hurried across the empty street. The park wasn't large and we found a fountain that was on despite the others being off for the night.

"It's probably on the top since the location could be seen from far away," Auburn pointed out. "There's a flat part right there."

The scientist placed the table where she indicated. As soon as he did so, a laser indicated a panel on the floor. The group instinctively turned to see who had shown it. The light disappeared then, and all we could see around us were the shadows cast by street lights.

The person could have been anywhere within five hundred feet due to the limits of how far the laser beam could stay coherent. It would be nearly impossible to cover that radius for us.

Cain was already lifting the panel when the trio turned their gazes back. She sat with an open can of orange soda. There was something taped under it.

"Read it to us, Cain," the scientist spoke.

"Sit blank and play the correct note," Cain told us.

"Going with the theme, I would have to say the instrument is a sitar," Auburn hair informed the group.

"I'm assuming that soda is flat," I realized too late, "Cain, don't drink it!"

"It's okay. You're right. It's flat," Cain replied. "I'll play a synthesized sitar." She used her PPC and converted the South Asian notes to Western. She played a key. "That's it." As she spoke another laser indicated another panel on the fountain. I looked toward the source again, but I was greeted with darkness.

"Yeah! We did it," The scientist said excitedly.

Cain picked up a letter and a box from the cavity. She read the letter quickly and discarded it.

Auburn hair read it out loud, "All he stood for was chaos, but it was his chaos. This gave the world order. The universe tends toward disorder. He couldn't be allowed to exist.- Kazu Reiashima"

"I'm not sure what to make of this," the scientist spoke. "Miss Cain, you have any idea."

"I need to post this. I need to post this. I need to post this…," Cain was furiously typing on her PPC with an opened box and opened bottle of some liquid."

"Don't go on Paradise!"

_Click!_

Cain's message got sent with a response of flashes. She fell limp afterwards.

Auburn hair picked up the bottle "It's alcohol."


	55. Bridge Battle Conclusion

I, Luke LaRouge, got a call from Kushal while I was monitoring the addition of another party on the bridge. The mobsters and thugs I was leading were being outclassed as they made their way toward the three trucks. The part that was unusual was that they were also fighting against the JSDF forces that had been defending the trucks. This was a force like my own or perhaps even trained para-military forces.

Maybe, Kushal had information on them. I patched him in.

"I've got one of their leaders on top of Truck 2…" Kushal began followed by two gunshots. "Damn, they've sniped my guns."

Kushal didn't speak for the next minute or so. I could hear him panting now since he was running. Then there was a _thunk_ as if the radio fell.

"Kushal!"

The signal picked up again, "I've got your friend restrained. We don't want extra casualties, so call off your goons and leave. You were fated to fail this operation as it was."

I was furious. After all this planning and the risks that I took, I'm told by some woman that it wasn't going to succeed. _Don't give me that!_

"Hold your position, I'll come to meet you leader-to-leader and pick up Kushal."

_I still have a trump card in the Emperor's Eye._

"Make it quick," the woman said business-like. "I assume you have your subordinate's coordinates."

"I'll be there in three minutes."

I made my way to Kushal's coordinates. There was one woman looking like some kind of spy-assassin standing in the center of five armed soldiers. She looked at me and then smirked at me. I was a bit annoyed at that.

Looking around, I saw a soldier holding Kushal down against the bridge. The woman gave the soldier a signal and he let Kushal go. The soldiers were well equipped with bulletproof vests and high powered automatic rifles. The only odd part of their apparel was that they were equipped with visors that didn't seem the same style as their uniforms.

Kushal walked over to me and whispered, "Those visors were the cargo of this truck."

I walked to the woman, but kept enough distance so that the soldiers were all in view. I used the Emperor's eye with them, "You'll hand over the equipment you got from these trucks to us and then leave this city."

I waited for a couple of seconds. The woman smiled. None of the soldiers had taken the visors off.

_There was no effect!_

I remembered something like this happening earlier… It was the same as Akamatsu! The visors must be stopping the effect. Then the only question was: why hadn't it affected the woman.

"It looks like you're the one in the power position," I admitted defeat.

"Are you some petty thieves who happened to target this shipment. Or was there something else you were trying to do?"

_The answer here could put things back on track._

"We want to bring down Debriten."

"Send your crew back. We'd like to minimize the loss of resources available to us."

"What do you mean by that?" Kushal inquired.

"Look, we have similar goals. We'll talk about the details at our base. There's still a special-ops unit we need to deal with, but that won't take long. You two will tag along after that." Then to her entourage, "Take them away."

Two of the soldiers led us to the side of the bridge. I looked through the fog if I could see anything, but it wasn't possible. "We'll attach you to a harness and give you some protective gloves. You're going to slide down to our transport," One of the soldiers said while he put the harnesses on us without our chance to object. He pushed two sets of gloves into my chest and continued, "One of us will go first. Follow our example. I'll go after to make sure you don't try anything."

The second soldier climbed over the railing, grabbed a cable that was hooked to the bridge, and attached a hook that connected his harness to the cable. He climbed down in a way that we could handle and then slid down into the darkness below the bridge.

Kushal went next. He grappled down fluidly…

… _almost as if he were trained to do so._

I'll make it a note to look into that. For now, I made my way to the cable. I hadn't done anything like this before, so I made sure everything was connected tightly before cautiously going to edge. It was unsightly, but I got on my knees, climbed over the edge, and went slowly into the fog below…

It took less than a minute before I saw some kind of platform over the water where about a dozen people were standing on. A soldier aided my dismount.

Kushal walked over to me, "They have enough resources to have a submarine. This isn't something second-rate either. It's not an older American or Soviet model as far as I could tell. It might be Chinese. It wouldn't surprise me if they were targeting Debriten because they don't want him expanding into their spheres of influence."

"Hmm… If that's true, it could be trouble. What I'm thinking is that this is self-funded and self-developed. It's no small undertaking of course, but if they're someone like Debriten they could pull it off," I replied.

"Interesting…" Kushal began. He was cut off by the sound of more troops landing onto the boat. The woman was the last to descend. She spoke to the crew that was here before the soldiers and then walked toward us.

"I don't believe we've introduced ourselves. I'm Miuka Kuroki a squad leader of the Gray Guards," Miuka introduced herself.

"For our safety, I can't give our full names. My name is Luke and this is Kushal," I reciprocated.

"Okay, I'll leave it at that. I'll take you two into the boat if you don't mind. We'll give you something to eat if you want."

"No, I'll pass on that. We don't know anything about you, yet," Kushal responded.

"That's your choice, but I'd like to talk to Luke in private. You'll be waiting until we're done."

"It's okay, Kushal. I'll handle it."

We entered the hatch and walked through a couple of corridors. The inside of the submarine was fairly. We reached a room shortly. Kushal decided to station himself close by rather than going to the dining area. Miuka entered first and I followed. There was a table and a couple of seats in the room. It looked like this is where they held interrogation. Miuka placed a chair on either side of the table. I sat down.

"Now that we're here, let's go over why you attacked Debriten's shipment," I began.

"He's out to create perpetual chaos in the world for his own gain…, but that's interesting. You brought that topic out first. Most people would be upset someone told them that they were fated to fail. The next question you would have is: why I felt I knew that," Miuka led the conversation.

"I'm more concerned about how you're going to affect my plans."

"That's not it. You are holding your cards. You already knew the occult exists. You're already involved."

"If that's the case, then how does it involve me?"

"I'm guessing you made a pact for those eyes. Don't think I wouldn't notice when you tried to use them. Did you ever figure out why they didn't affect me?"

"You've got occult eyes, too, it seems," I posited.

"Correct. Now, you must be wondering why they didn't work on the soldiers with visors."

"Debriten figured a way to fight back against occult eye users."

"You're on the right track, but there's a part you're missing. He's not scared of the eye users. He wants to create a future where users are ubiquitous. He's looking to profit from countries will be afraid of these users and will want to fight back."

"It looks like you have someone who's infiltrated Debriten's higher ranks."

"It's something comparable to that."

"Okay, so what makes you and these Grey Guards want to fight against Debriten. I want to prevent the widespread destruction that would occur if Debriten gets his way. The Grey Guards in general have some vested financial interest in seeing Debriten's downfall."

"I want to see Debriten's demise. I'll give you my support. We have some bases on land that we could share as well as manpower if you need it."

"Good. From now on, we'll be in contact," Miuka concluded. "Let's go."

We stepped outside the room and saw the guards and Kushal talking at the side.

"I'll take you two to shore on a raft," Miuka offered. She paused. "Before that, you might be interested in seeing the cargo on the other trucks."

_This is good. I wasn't sure how far I would get with just Kushal and the gang members. Now, I've got access to trained military soldiers and another eye user. We could take some bolder steps._


	56. Omake 0: Apple Crusted Pizza

_I could really go for some apples. _Rook thought this absentmindedly as he passed a bakery. He knocked into a girl in white garb staring intensely at the menu's bagel menu outside of store.

"Ah, sorry for bumping into you young lady."

"No matter," she said hurriedly. "It not like I was going in."

"Eh, why not. The establishment in known for its bread products. I'd suggest you try it." Rook parlayed.

"N..n...no."

"Suit yourself, young lady."...

_Seacchi, you've got to control your urges. But that pizza bagel..._

"Made up your mind yet, young lady."

"Ah, on second thought I've been enticed by your clever marketing."

The two reached the door of the cafe at the same time.

"Ladies first, eh

"Thanks but I was just seeing if they had pizza bagels.

"Irashai Masai," two young women gestured. A few sharp objects fell from the costume of one of the maids.

"Heh" Rook mentioned. "This one's dangerous; I'll stick to you instead," he moved towards the other.

The two were seated across from each other on opposite sides of the window. Rook had the window seat closest to the entrance. Rook immediately goes toward the counter while Seacci mumbles something about bagels to the one with the sharp objects hidden underneath her attire.

"Yes, so one pizza-bagel. Is that all"

"Did you just call me fat. 'cause if you did, its ok. Just get it out of your system. You'll feel better about yourself."

Blank stare both waitress and customer.

From the opposite side of the store: _Crunch_.

Seacchi looked over to see a mound of apples placed on the table in front of the stranger who had invited her in.

Something doesn't feel right about this person.

"Ah, saw you looking at me. My name's Rook; I'm pleased to meet you. What's your moniker?"

"Achi. Remember it."

"Hey, hey, no need to be so serious. Think of this as fate. I know that's not your real name," Rook said to a surprised Seacci

"But I'll be honest. I don't know your name in the first place. By the way, would you want some slices of apple to go with your bagel. I put apples on everything... even pancakes."

"Not today."

"Suit yourself. _Crunch,_" Rook took another bite.

Four minutes later: all that was left of the mound of apples were ten or some what number of apple rinds.


	57. Omake 1: Fair Skies Competition

p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"emThere's nothing in this world that can escape the harness of fate: all things happen for a reason. /emKoyuun thought this as she sat on a bench in a local park. My peaceful afternoon was interrupted by a loud speaker call./p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"em em/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Talent Call! Today only at the bandstand. All are welcome to try."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"em em/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"emMight be entertaining. emI decided to check the venue out, and if booze is involved I'll definitely give it a try. I took a leisurely walk toward the crowded band stand. There were a few families gathered. A couple of children were making noise in the background. I could see that each of the families were troubled by one thing or another. One was a pair of child aunt of her caretaker who was a hardworking salary-man. Another was a father daughter couple brought together by the actions of the freeter mother who wasn't married to the father. The last family I found noticeable were two separate households brought together by a real estate conman./p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"em em/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""We are looking for talented individuals to spice up this Sunday afternoon at the annual community matsuri."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"em em/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"I took a step up toward the podium. There were two others beside me. A beautiful feminine looking cross-dresser and a gothic lolita. They wouldn't be of any trouble for me since my fortunes are never wrong. I could tell that the cross-dresser had everyone else fooled.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"em em/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"The first one to the stage was the gothic lolita, "Hello everyone, I'm Nemi Saka. Pleased to meet you all. I'll be doing a singing routine I've worked hard on."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Please, please move aside," the transvestite spoke. "no one wants to hear your boring lyrics and second rate dance moves. They need something fresh and bright like me."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"I spoke up, "Do not get so cocky young one."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""What can you do you old bag. Just because you have bigger... (motions to chest area) doesn't mean you'll be the winner"p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""My fortunes are never wrong when ever a payment is made and besides I'm aiming for the second place prize of black label sake. Your main competition was the lolita in black.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Hmph!" he beckoned toward what looked to be his maid "Lets go Natsurita."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"There was already a small crowd converging toward the gothic-lolita. She must have been some third rate idol since the crowd wasn't all centered on her. I had bought my ceremonial fans with me as usual as well as my usual pipe and incense. And so, I began preparing for my fortune telling booth.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"strong...strong/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"The announcer called everyone to attention," Okay we're ready for the fourth annual park festival, and the three contestants we have are Nemi Saka who will be doing a song and dance routine, Haria Oe who will be doing an archery stunt, and Koyuun who will be doing fortune telling."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Okay Saka-tan please begin," the announcer called up the first contestant.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Please be kind to me," Nemi said before she started. "I'll be doing a song from a PV I've done in the past."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"em(lyrics to be filled in later)em/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"em em/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Haria Oe is up next." the announcer began. She (cough could be heard from Koyuun) will be doing a stunt: firing four arrows to strike four target apples."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"Haria was in her traditional archery clothes and had her maid stand about forty feet away with apples balanced on both arms as well has head and between the feet. She wound up dramatically and pulled the bowstring back. "Fwoosh." Three of the arrows hit the targets on the head, left hand, and between the feet. The last arrow grazed Nemi's ear, causing her to lose her balance, but steered directly toward Koyuun. With a flash of her fan she deflected the last arrow.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Oy, oy, be careful Oe-chan," the announcer mentioned. "This is grounds for expulsion. We apologize for the danger Oe-chan put you two through."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""All things happen for a reason," was Koyuun's response. "Keep her included. No one was hurt, right?"p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"strong...strong/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Next, we have Koyuun-san and her never-wrong fortune telling," the announcer started.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"The members of the quintet band stepped up to the booth Koyuun had prepared by a near-by willow tree.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Where should I begin," Koyuun said more to herself rather than to anyone else. "Let me take a look at your instruments. They should be able to tell me a lot about you."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"The Oboist, Henry Todaka, went up first.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""I need an item from you to divine your luck," Koyuun spoke. He handed her his double reed.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Hmmm," she began, "Don't get your mind set on one woman, it'll only cause you grief."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Oh no, my luck's terrible!" Todaka exclaimed.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Hahha, it suits you," the french horn spoke up.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" "You will, however, have better karma in the future with foreign women."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"Nothing out of the ordinary came off the others' fortunes: One would injure his instrument soon, the third would have an unexpected visit from a family member which was soon verified, and the last would have an upset stomach because of something he ate yesterday (this was verified after the third act).p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"strong...strong/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"strong strong/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"Finally it was Nemi Saka's, the gothic-lolita idol's, turn. She walked up to the stage and stood clutching the microphone:p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;""Alright everyone, hands in the air:p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;" (insert song)p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;page-break-before:always" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"Everyone was awestruck and Saka-tan ran off the stage crying because of the slip-up. It followed that Haria won first, Koyuun won second as she wanted (a bottle of sake), and Nemi took third.p 


	58. Omake 2a: Lost Feathers

"We need your help," a distressed Dyoran Bo appeared carrying a weakly looking Hakura Himoto.

I, Jim Sugata, was unsure of what to do in this situation. "Look, I am not a miracle worker or healer. I can try to send you to a nice hospital if you want."

In a hushed voice Hakura spoke, "Its for our cat, Feathers… He's gone missing."

"I know a guy that could help us out. He has this thing with animals. Let's take the yon line downtown."

We rode for fifteen minutes and three stops later we got off. I led them to a back alley behind a coffee shop. "There," I pointed to a bearded man behind a makeshift stand. I always am surprised to see what power of intuition the guy has. A few animals scuttled from behind him.

"Wah, they aren't hallucinations," Hakura exclaimed.

There were some animals including a penguin, dog, birds, pig, and raccoon that stood calmly behind the guy. "I cn tell that you need guidance to find your pet."

"Thats amazing," Hakura was taken aback

"Shhh!" to the pig, "Gilgamesh go lead the others to search the city for it."

A few minutes later a bird perched on the guy's shouder. "We have a lead"

To be continued…


	59. Omake 3: Future Prospects

I, Miuka Kuroki, entered the grounds of my aunt's training complex after an uneventful day at school. I had some errands to do before I start homework. I went to the girls' dormitory to leave my backpack and change into some sweats. I didn't run into any other of the residents which meant they were either training or doing chores like I was about to do. Today was relatively easy because I just needed to rake the leaves from the grounds and then help in the kitchen preparing meals for the other residents.

I went to the central building and began my sweeping at the entrance.

_Caaaaaaaw. _

I could hear the crows perched in the trees.

_It was around the same time of year, I came to these grounds._

I don't remember much from back then. I wasn't with my parents. That was when I was introduced to the world of occult. It didn't scare me, and I felt that it was a natural extension of the world.

I was brought back into the present feeling the presence of someone approaching me.

A younger male trainee notified me, "Kuroki-san, your presence is requested at the central hall."

I made my way there through the grounds towards the main building of the complex. I stopped to greet the senior members of my aunt's training program. I ran into them midway through their sparring. I managed to dodge their blows as they turned to me. There were a few people sitting to the side meditating. One of them opened their eyes and greeted me with a smile.

"It is rare for Kuroki-san to join us," the previously meditating woman gestured.

"Don't praise me. I know you are more skilled than I when it comes to perception, Koyuun. I am not arrogant enough to underestimate you."

"You say that but, I'm sure by now your skills have surpassed our physical speed," one of the two sparring said respectfully.

"I'd like to continue later if we have the time, Souske-san. I have to meet my aunt now, so I'll leave you for now."

I found my aunt, sitting elegantly at the traditional tea table. Across from her was someone who looked like me.

_I could tell instinctively: this was my mother._

"I have to tell you the truth. Your name isn't Miuka Kuroki; it is Lanna Yango. Your mother's last name was kept instead of your father's. You had lived with only your father when we found you. We took you away from Las Heika City for your own safety," she began. "As you probably have felt, she is your mother."

"I am honored to meet you, mother. But for now, I plan on keeping my name, Miuka Kuroki. My life now isn't a lie. I can't rely on the past," I answered her.

"It is interesting that you mention the past, because that is where we want to send you," my aunt declared.


End file.
